OX THE METHOD OF ZADIG. 151 



he will not be the last. The matter can be easily tested. 

 Search the eight volumes of the "Recherches sur les 

 Ossemens f ossiles " from cover to cover, and nothing but 

 the application of the method of Zadig will be found 

 in the arguments by which a fragment of a skeleton is 

 made to reveal the characters of the animal to which it 

 belonged. 



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 contained the 

 greater part of the skeleton of a small animal. On care- 

 ful 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 something to do with 

 the support of the pouch, or marsupium, 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 



