18G WALTER KIDD, ESQ., M.D., F.Z.S., 



their land with cart ropes and teams of liorses. One may at 

 least be thankful that no similar ejitre.prencur has attempted 

 to improve the fauna of Australasia by the importation of a 

 batch of wild felidas of various kinds ! The regulation of 

 the fauna and flora of tliis region of the world by divine 

 wisdom has not produced, through vast geological epochs, 

 the chaotic results which a generation of human bungling 

 has easily brought to pass. 



In the case of geographical distribution, as in tha.t of 

 classification, if the same justice be extended to the theory of 

 creation which the opposing theory would claim for itself, this 

 line of evidence supports the former as n)uch as the latter. 



Palaontologii. — This department forms the probable battle- 

 ground of the future, and an ample field indeed is supplied 

 by the succession of life-forms from Cambrian or Pre-Cambrian 

 to Quaternary times. It is obvious from the nature of the 

 case that, if the doctrine of evolution be true, the teachings 

 of palaeontology, with the growth of ascertained facts, must 

 verify it accurately. In this subject the evolutioni&t is in a 

 very comfortable position. If the facts of palaiontology 

 favour him, well and good; and with such avast succession of 

 life-forms for his study, it is inconceivable that many lines 

 will not favour him. If the facts are against him, he has but 

 to point to that imperfection of the record which is a name 

 to conjure with, and Avhich is admitted by all. If finally no 

 light is lorthcoming from the fossiliferous beds on a certain 

 line of argument, again the imperfection of the record is 

 adduced. Evidently here the evolutionist " stands to win " 

 for some time to come. All writers insist so elaborately on 

 the necessarily broken record of palaeontology that it needs 

 no proof, but the latest utterance from Enghsh geology, by 

 Professor J\Iarr, may be alluded to. He said at Liverpool in 

 his presidential address, "As it is, we have barely crossed the 

 threshold of discovery, and the ' imperfection of the geological 

 record ' gives geology one of its greatest charms."'* Several 

 lines of descent are supposed to be proved as favouring the 

 theory, and, as mentioned already, Professor Huxley spoke of 

 the evolution of certain forms from their predecessors as an 

 historical fact, instancing the equine type in particular, tlu' 

 ungulate types in general, the carnivora, birds, and reptiles, 

 and the crocodilia. By this time the equine type has become 



* British Association of Scieuce, 1896. Presidential Address in Geo- 

 logical Section, ]>. 2. 



