VL] ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG. U5 



fleeted angle of the jaw are very generally found along 

 with marsupial bones, he has not yet communicated 

 that knowledge to the world. 



If, however, Zadig was right in concluding from 

 the likeness of the hoof -prints which he observed to a 

 horse's that the creature which made them had a tail 

 like that of a horse, Cuvier, seeing that the teeth and 

 jaw of his fossil were just like those of an opossum, 

 had the same right to conclude that the pelvis would 

 also be like an opossum's ; and so strong was his 

 conviction that this retrospective prophecy, about an 

 animal which he had never seen before, and which 

 had been dead and buried for millions of years, would 

 be verified, that he went to work upon the slab which 

 contained the pelvis in confident expectation of finding 

 and laying bare the " marsupial bones," to the satis- 

 faction of some persons whom he had invited to 

 witness their disintennent. As he says : " Cette 

 operation se fit en presence de quelques personnes 

 a qui j'en avais annonce* d'avance le r^sultat, dans 

 1'intention de leur prouver par le fait la justice de nos 

 theories zoologiques ; puisque le vrai cachet d'une 

 theorie est sans contredit la faculte qu'elle donne de 

 prevoir les phenomenes." 



In the "Ossemens fossiles" Cuvier leaves his paper 

 just as it first appeared in the "Annales du Museum," 

 as " a curious monument of the force of zoological laws 

 and of the use which may be made of them." 



Zoological laws truly, but not physiological laws. 

 If one sees a live dog's head, it is extremely probable 

 that a dog's tail is not far off, though nobody can say 



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