XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 353 



which will be requisite to consider carefully ; and 

 the first point for us is to examine how much the 

 extinct Flora and Fauna as a whole disregarding 

 altogether the succession of their constituents, of 

 which I shall speak afterwards differ from the 

 Flora and Fauna of the present day ; how far they 

 differ in what we do know about them, leaving 

 altogether out of consideration speculations based 

 upon what we do not know. 



I strongly imagine that if it were not for the 

 peculiar appearance that fossilised animals have, 

 any of you might readily walk through a 

 museum which contains fossil remains mixed up 

 with those of the present forms of life, and I doubt 

 very much whether your uninstructed eyes would 

 lead you to see any vast or wonderful difference 

 between the two. If you looked closely, you would 

 notice, in the first place, a great many things very 

 like animals with which you are acquainted now : 

 you would see differences of shape and proportion, 

 but on the whole a close similarity. 



I explained what I meant by ORDERS the other 

 day, when I described the animal kingdom as 

 being divided into sub-kingdoms, classes and 

 orders. If you divide the animal kingdom into 

 orders you will find that there are above one 

 hundred and twenty. The number may vary on 

 one side or the other, but this is a fair estimate. 

 That is the sum total of the orders of all the 

 animals which we know now, and which have 



