PRIMITIVE MAN. 359 



of these, many hundreds of specimens, I have arrived 

 at the conclusion that they are absolutely unchanged. 

 Some of them, it is true, are variable shells, presenting 

 as many and great varieties as the human race itself; 

 yet I find that in the Post-pliocene even the varieties 

 of each species were the same as now, though the 

 great changes of temperature and elevation which have 

 occurred, have removed many of them to distant places, 

 and have made them become locally extinct in regions 

 over which they once spread. Here again we have an 

 absolute refusal, on the part of all these animals, to 

 admit that they are derived, or have tended to sport 

 into new species. This is also, it is to be observed, 

 altogether independent of that imperfection of the 

 geological record of which so much is made ; since we 

 have abundance of these shells in the Post-pliocene 

 beds, and in the modern seas, and no one doubts 

 their continued descent. To what does this point? 

 Evidently to the conclusion that all these species show 

 no indication of derivation, or tendency to improve, 

 but move back in parallel lines to some unknown 

 creative origin. 



If it be objected to this conclusion that absence 

 of derivation in the Post-pliocene and Modern does 

 not prove that it may not previously have occurred, 

 the answer is, that if the evolutionist admits that 

 for a very long period (and this the only one of which 

 we have any certain knowledge, and the only one 

 which concerns man) derivation has been suspended, 

 he in effect abandons his position. It may, however, 



