A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



As a final and tangible proof of his position, he brought 

 forward the bodies of ibises that had been embalmed 

 by the ancient Egyptians, and showed by comparison 

 that these do not differ in the slightest particular from 

 the ibises that visit the Nile to-day. 



Cuvier's reasoning has such great historical interest 

 being the argument of the greatest opponent of 

 evolution of that day that we quote it at some 

 length. 



"The following objections," he says, "have already 

 been started against my conclusions. Why may not 

 the presently existing races of mammiferous land 

 quadrupeds be mere modifications or varieties of those 

 ancient races which we now find in the fossil state, 

 which modifications may have been produced by change 

 of climate and other local circumstances, and since 

 raised to the present excessive difference by the oper- 

 ations of similar causes during a long period of ages ? 



"This objection may appear strong to those who 

 believe in the indefinite possibility of change of form 

 in organized bodies, and think that, during a succession 

 of ages and by alterations of habitudes, all the species 

 may change into one another, or one of them give 

 birth to all the rest. Yet to these persons the following 

 answer may be given from their own system: If the 

 species have changed by degrees, as they assume, we 

 ought to find traces of this gradual modification. Thus, 

 between the fal&otkerium and the species of our own 

 day, we should be able to discover some intermediate 

 forms ; and yet no such discovery has ever been made. 

 Since the bowels of the earth have not preserved mon- 

 uments of this strange genealogy, we have no right to 



154 



