786 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



CHAPTER XL. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



§ 422. Biological Questions of 1830. — At the close of my studies 

 at the Jardin de Plantes, Paris, in 1831, I returned strongly 

 moved to lines of research bearing upon the then prevailing 

 phases of thought on some general biological questions. 



The great Master in whose dissecting-rooms, as well as in the 

 public galleries of Comparative Anatomy, I was privileged to 

 work, held that ( species were not permanent : ' and taught this 

 great and fruitful truth, not doubtfully or hypothetically, but as 

 a fact established inductively on a wide and well-laid basis of 

 observation, by which, indeed, among other acquisitions to science, 

 Comparative Osteology had been created. Camper l and Hunter 2 

 suspected that species might be transitory ; but Cuvier, in de- 

 fining the characters of his Anoplotherium and Palaotherium, 

 &c, proved the fact. 



In this truly scientific labour the law of the subordination of 

 the different organic characters to the condition of the whole 

 animal was first appreciated, clearly enunciated, and its applica- 

 tion shown to the reconstruction of lost species from fragmentary 

 remains. The importance of this generalisation may be paralleled 

 with that of the principle of equivalents in chemical science. 



Of the relations of past to present species, and the conditions 

 of their succession, Cuvier had not an adequate basis for a de- 

 cided opinion. Observation of changes in the relative position of 

 land and sea suggested to him one condition of the advent of 

 new species on an island or continent where old species had died 

 out. This view he illustrates by a hypothetical case of such 

 succession, 3 but expressly states : — f Je ne pretends pas qu'il ait 

 fallu une creation nouvelle pour produire les especes aujourd'hui 

 existantes, je dis seulement qu'elles n'existoient pas dans les 

 memes lieux, et qu'elles ont du y venir d'ailleurs.' 4 



Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, whose discussions with his colleague in 

 the ( Academie des Sciences' made its annals of 1830 memorable, 



1 ccxcii". * ccxcin". and other authors cited in cxxxix. p. xly. 



■ cxxxix. torn. i. p, lxiii. * lb. 



