144 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG. [LECT. 



There is one well-known case which may represent 

 all. It is an excellent illustration of Cuvier's sagacity, 

 and he evidently takes some pride in telling his story 

 about it. A split slab of stone arrived from the 

 quarries of Montmartre, the two halves of which con- 

 tained the greater part of the skeleton of a small 

 animal. On careful examinations of the characters of 

 the teeth and of the lower jaw, which happened to be 

 exposed, Cuvier assured himself that they presented 

 such a very close resemblance to the corresponding 

 parts in the living opossums that he at once assigned 

 the fossil to that genus. 



Now the opossums are unlike most mammals in 

 that they possess two bones attached to the fore part 

 of the pelvis, which are commonly called " marsupial 

 bones." The name is a misnomer, originally conferred 

 because it was thought that these bones have some- 

 thing to do with the support of the pouch, or mar- 

 supium, with which some, but not all, of the opossums 

 are provided. As a matter of fact, they have nothing 

 to do with the support of the pouch, and they exist 

 as much in those opossums which have no pouches as 

 in those which possess them. In truth, no one knows 

 what the use of these bones may be, nor has any valid 

 theory of their physiological import yet been suggested. 

 And if we have no knowledge of the physiological 

 importance of the bones themselves, it is obviously 

 absurd to pretend that we are able to give physiological 

 reasons why the presence of these bones is associated 

 with certain peculiarities of the teeth and of the jaws. 

 If any one knows why four molar teeth and an in- 



