62 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



All this, it may be said, is nothing more than the Botany and 

 Zoology of the past. True, the general absence of any soft tissues, and 

 the obscured or fragmentary condition of those harder parts which alone 

 are preserved, mate the studies of the palaeontologist more difficult, and 

 drive him to special methods. But the result is less complete : in short, 

 an inferior and unattractive branch of Biology. Let us relegate it to 

 Section C ! 



Certainly the relation of Palaeontology to Geology is obvious. It is 

 a ipart of that general history of the Earth which is Geology. And it is 

 an essential part even of physical geology, for without life not merely 

 would our series of strata have lacked the coal measures, the mountain 

 limestones, the chalks, and the siliceous earths, but the changes of land 

 and sea would have been far other. To the scientific interpreter of 

 Earth-history, the importance of fossils lies fii'st in their value as date- 

 markers ; secondly, in the light which they cast on bai-riers and cuiTents, 

 on seasonal and climatic variation. Conversely, the history of life has 

 itself been influenced by geologic change. But all this is just as true of 

 the present inhabitants of the globe as it is of their predecessors. It 

 does not give the differentia of Palaeontology. 



That which above all distinguishes Palaeontology — the study of 

 ancient creatures, from Neontology — the study of creatures now living, 

 that which raises it above the more description of extinct assemblages of 

 life-forms, is the concept of Time. Not the quasi-absolut-e time of the 

 clock, or rather, of the sun ; not various unrelated durations ; but an 

 orderly and related succession, coextensive, in theory at least, with 

 the whole history of life on this planet. The bearing of this obvious 

 statement will appear from one or two simple illustrations. 



Effect of the Time-concept on Principles of Classificatio^i. 



Adopting the well-tried metaphor, let us imagine the ti'ee of life 

 buried, except for its topmost twigs, beneath a sand-dune. The neontolo- 

 gist sees only the unburied twigs. He recognises certain rough group- 

 ings, and constructs a classification accordingly. From various hints 

 he may shrewdly infer that some twigs come from one branch, some 

 from another; but the relations of the branches to the main steni are 

 matters of speculation, and when branches have become so interlaced 

 that their twigs have long been subjected to the same external influences, 

 he wiU probably be led to incorrect conclusions. The palaeontologist 

 then comes, shovels away the sand, and by degrees exposes the true 

 relations of branches and twigs. His work is not yet accomplished, and 

 probably he never will reveal the root and lower part of the ti^ee; but 

 already he has corrected many natural, if not inevitable, en'ors of the 

 neontologist. 



I could easily occupy the rest of this hour by discussing the pro- 

 found changes wrought by this conception on our classification. It is 

 not that Orders and Classes hitherto unknown have been discovered, 

 not that some erroneous allocations have been corrected, but the whole 

 basis of our system is being shifted. So long as we were dealing with 



