276 GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY ix 



of, correspondence in succession is correspondence 

 in age ; it is relative contemporaneity. 



But it would have been very much better for 

 geology if so loose and ambiguous a word as 

 " contemporaneous " had been excluded from her 

 terminology, and if, in its stead, some term 

 expressing similarity of serial relation, and ex- 

 cluding the notion of time altogether, had been 

 employed to denote correspondence in position 

 in two or more series of strata. 



In anatomy, where such correspondence of posi- 

 tion has constantly to be spoken of, it is denoted 

 by the word " homology " and its derivatives ; and 

 for Geology (which after all is only the anatomy 

 and physiology of the earth) it might be well to 

 invent some single word, such as " homotaxis " 

 (similarity of order), in order to express an essen- 

 tially similar idea. This, however, has not been 

 done, and most probably the inquiry will at once 

 be made To what end burden science with a new 

 and strange term in place of one old, familiar, and 

 part of our common language ? 



The reply to this question will become obvious 

 as the inquiry into the results of palaeontology is 

 pushed further. 



Those whose business it is to acquaint themselves 

 specially with the works of paleontologists, in fact, 

 will be fully aware that very few, if any, would rest 

 satisfied with such a statement of the conclusions 



