252 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIII 



find netting intermediate between crocodilia and lacertilia 

 in the whole range of the Mesozoic rocks. How do we 

 know that Man is not a persistent type ? And as for 

 implements, at this day, and as, I suppose, for the last 

 two or three thousand years at least, the savages of 

 Australia have made their weapons of nothing but bone 

 and wood. Why should Homo Eocenus or Ooliticus, the 

 fellows who waddied the AmpJtitherium and speared the 

 Phascolotherium as the Australian niggers treat their 

 congeners, have been more advanced ? 



I by no means suppose that the transmutation hypo- 

 thesis is proven or anything like it. But I view it as 

 a powerful instrument of research. Follow it out, and 

 it will lead us somewhere ; while the other notion is like 

 all the modifications of " final causation," a barren virgin. 



And I would very strongly urge upon you that it is 

 the logical development of Uniformitarianism, and that 

 its adoption would harmonise the spirit of Paleontology 

 with that of Physical Geology. 



