INTRODUCTION. 14! 



which he founded for the identification of fossil bones, and 

 upon his successful demonstration that the primeval mammals 

 were not mere varieties of living forms, but belonged to | 

 extinct species and genera. 



As Buffon had done twenty years earlier, Cuvier likewise, 

 by his commanding personality, attracted many to the study 

 of geology and palaeontology, and instilled enthusiasm into 

 a large circle of his more intimrte friends and scientific 

 disciples. Others had shown how important fossils were for 

 j an understanding of the stratigraphical succession. But 

 never before Cuvier had the significance of fossils been so 

 energetically brought forward as a means of arriving at a true 

 appreciation of animal skeletal structures, and of building up a 

 history of the whole animal creation. Thus Cuvier largely 

 contributed to the rapid progress that was made during the 

 next quarter of the century in the detailed investigations of 

 fossil organisms and their stratigraphical position. 



It is not surprising that Cuvier's Catastrophal Theory, 

 which afforded a certain scientific basis for the Mosaic account 

 of the "Flood," was received with special cordiality in 

 England, for there, more than in any other country, theological 

 doctrines had always affected geological conceptions. Many 

 of the best known English geologists Greenough, Babbage, 

 Sedgvvick, and others considered the " Flood " the latest of 

 Cuvier's "World-Catastrophes." 



The most argumentative and influential member of this 

 party was Professor Buckland. He published in 1823 a 

 work entitled Reliquice. diluviance ; or, Observations on the 

 Organic Remains contained in Caves, fissures, and Diluvial 

 Gravel, and on other Phenomena attesting the action of a 

 Universal Deluge. In this work Buckland showed that the 

 majority of the Mammalian remains found in the caves and 

 fissures belonged to the same genera and species as those 

 which were found in the superficial gravels and clays. The 

 latter he sub-divided into a lower or " diluvial " series and an 

 upper or "alluvial" series comprising recent river and lake 

 deposits. He emphasised the wide distribution of the diluvial 

 deposits, and the fact that some of the animals interred in 

 them belong to extinct species, others to existing species, 

 and concluded that these deposits had been laid down by a 

 universal deluge at no more remote date than a few thousand 

 years ago. 



