NEW SCIENCE OF PALEONTOLOGY 



intermediate form. It is, of course, impossible to say 

 with certainty through which of the three-toed genera 

 of the pliocene that lived together the succession came. 

 It is not impossible that the latter species, which ap- 

 pear generically identical, are the descendants of more 

 distinct pliocene types, as the persistent tendency in 

 all the earlier forms was in the same direction. Con- 

 sidering the remarkable development of the group 

 through the tertiary period, and its existence even 

 later, it seems very strange that none of the species 

 should have survived, and that we are indebted for our 

 present horse to the Old World." 7 



PALEONTOLOGY OF EVOLUTION 



These and such-like revelations have come to light in 

 our own time are, indeed, still being disclosed. Need- 

 less to say, no index of any sort now attempts to con- 

 ceal them ; yet something has been accomplished tow- 

 ards the same end by the publication of the discoveries 

 in Smithsonian bulletins and in technical memoirs of 

 government surveys. Fortunately, however, the re- 

 sults have been rescued from that partial oblivion by 

 such interpreters as Professors Huxley and Cope, so 

 the unscientific public has been allowed to gain at 

 least an inkling of the wonderful progress of paleontol- 

 ogy in our generation. 



The writings of Huxley in particular epitomize the 

 record. In 1862 he admitted candidly that the paleon- 

 tological record as then known, so far as it bears on the 

 doctrine of progressive development, negatives that 

 doctrine. In 1870 he was able to "soften somewhat 

 the Brutus-like severity" of his former verdict, and to 



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