THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. I. 



No . II. — FEBRUARY, 1 904 . 



oiaiG-iiTJLnL ^^I^TIGL:E]s. 



I, — A Retrospect of Paleontology in the last Forty Years.'' 



(Part II.) 



IN any retrospect of scientific progress there ai'e always special 

 points, ' golden milestones,' along the road by which we travel, 

 which mark unusual stages in our journey. Zittel, in his "History 

 of Geology and Palfeontology," fixes the 'heroic period 'from 1790 

 to 1820, when the great masters of our science, Werner, Pallas, 

 Saussure, Hutton, Playfair, William Smith, Leopold von Buch, '. 

 Alexander von Humboldt, Alex. Brongniart, and Cuvier arose and 

 laid the foundations of Geology. 



The more recent development from 1820 to the close of the 

 century may seem like an unbroken line of advance in geology and 

 palaeontology ; but such is not the case. Special events of scientific, 

 interest from time to time, like the arrival of reinforcements, have 

 given us fresh support and encouragement. The establishment of 

 Geological Surveys in this country, in America, and on the Continent 

 added an enormous onward impulse to such investigations, as did 

 also the meetings of the Geological Society of London and its publir 

 cations. The establishment of the British Association in 1830, arid 

 the increasing tendency to teach Natural Science in our great 

 Universities, have stimulated and encouraged a very large number 

 of ardent workers to enter the geological field. Nor must we forget 

 the interest which the writings of Sedgwick, Buckland, Murchison, 

 Lyell, Phillips, Forbes, Eamsay, Geikie, and many others, produced 

 in the minds of students who came under their influence. 



But the most powerful and wide - spreading impulse given to 

 geological and paleeontological investigations was undoubtedly due 

 to the publication by Charles Darwin of his " Origin of Species," 

 and the revolution caused by the introduction of the doctrine of 'the 

 variation of species,' which the older naturalists had never admitted, 

 having always treated them as permanent and immutable ideas. 

 Only those of us who have lived through the period between 1858 

 and 1878 can fully realize the vast and radical change in the current 



1 Part I, of " A Eetrospect of Geology," appeared in oiu- January number, 1904, 

 pp. 1-6. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



DECADE T. VOL. I. NO. II. 4 



