PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 7 



the less alike the better for mere purposes of distinguishing strata. It was, thfre- 

 fore, not unnatural that the early geologists', believing, as they did, that each 

 particular animal or plant was a special effort of creation, should fail to recognize 

 the value of biology in connection with the study of fossil remains. Indeed, when' 

 Cuvier and Brongniart, and, later, Deshayes and Lyell, undertook to correlate 

 the. organisms in the later rocks with living organisms — to point out where they 

 were identical, where they were related but not identical, and where there seemed 

 little relation — there were not wanting those who doubted the value of biology in 

 the study of geology, and who persisted m estimating the value of fossils merely as 

 guides in the stratigraphical arrangement of the rocks. Comparatively few fos- 

 sils had been gathered, specific differences were often not recognized, the doc- 

 trine of evolution had not been advanced, and as I have already said, any par- 

 ticular fossil might be regarded as an organism whose history had no relation to 

 anything but itself. The change which has come about in fifty or sixty years 

 would be incredible were the record not clearly before us. I am not able to 

 state even approximately the number of species now known, but a few detached 

 facts will sufficiently illustrate the scope of modern pala'ontology. Prestwich 

 estimated the species found in Great Britain in the Pahi'o/.oic rocks at 5.697, in 

 the Mesozoic rocks at 7,546, and in the Kainozoic, including the Quaternary, at 

 4,013. That is, altogether, at 17,256 species, in the British Isles. This, as we know, 

 is but a trifling part of the earth's area, although it is that which has been most 

 thoroughly examined. Barrande estimated the Silurian species alone of Europe 

 and America at 10,674, to which, of course, many have been added since the cal- 

 ciilation was made. Every year great numbers of new forms are described and 

 new territory is put under examination. No one would be so foolish as to 

 attempt to guess the number of species which will eventually be recorded in 

 science. If one will turn from the meagre text-books of the first half of this cen- 

 tury to Zittel's'i' five large volumes, in which the first effort is made at a complete 

 classification of all branches of paheontology. he will realize that the natural his- 

 tory c^f fossil animals is scarcely less perfect in its system of classification, or in 

 its range of information, than the natural history ov living animals. But it will 

 be urged that after all we have only the hard parts of animals preserved. The 

 soft parts are gone, and, worse still, the animals which had no hard parts have 

 left almost no trace at all. This is quite true, and at first sight it seems an ines- 

 timable loss to the student of evolution. How will he ever fill the gaps in his 

 record if only the bones have been preserved for him ? 



In the case of fossil animals having apparently no living analogues, had there 

 been no theory of evolution there would doubtless have been no great desire to 

 ascertain the nature of the soft parts, and thus to establish them in their proper places 

 in the systems of natural history. And certainly in many cases, where the analogy 

 is now clear, without this interest on the part of the biologist it would not have 

 been suspected. But if in some class of fossil animals there are still a few living 

 analogues, it is wonderful to what a degree the generic relations can be worked 

 out and a system, satisfactory even to the biologist, be created, which shall include 

 all the known extinct and living forms, even when the fossil species outnumber the 

 living by a hundred to one. Allow me to illustrate this point by reference to the 

 work done in connection with one of the most, if not the most, ancient order 

 of shells, the brachiopoda. About 1884 Dr. Thomas Davidson, after thirty years 

 of labour on the subject, finished the first great work on brachiopods <2> It fills 

 five quarto vglumes and is illustrated by 250 plates. What is perhaps more stnk- 

 in'^ is the fact that the bibliography which completes the work, consists of 160 

 quarto pages, containing the titles of «ver 2,500 publications dealing with brachio- 



(1) Karl von Zittel. Handbuch der Pateontologie, 5 vols., 1876-1893. ,. ,^ . „ ,.. 



(2) T.Davidson. British Fossil Brachiopoda, vol. i.-vi., Publications of Pal.Tontograph.cal Society,. S.o-t, 5 



