JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 89 
tive necessity in this instance, only fancy a celebrated physi- 
cian who was selected to deliver ‘‘ The Hunterian Oration’’ (one 
of the highest honors known to the medical profession) positively 
rejecting the Hebrew version of the creation of mankind, and 
that apparently with the concurrence of the Doctors present. 
Some unsanctified geologist in the States must derive 
considerable amusement in stuffing the eloquent pastor of the 
Brooklyn Tabernacle with questionable information regarding 
the past history of life on earth. 
The Doctor, for instance, informs us ‘‘ that before the 
‘“ human race came into the world the earth was occupied by 
‘“reptiles and all sorts of destructive monsters (very true, 
‘“* Dinosaurs,’ ‘ Megalosaurs,’ ‘Iguanodons,’ etc.) but God, 
““he adds, sent huge birds to clear the earth of these crea- 
““tures.’’ ‘There we have the question settled at last, no 
doubt to the satisfaction of the learned gentleman’s admirers 
in Canada and the States. The extinction of the great Reptile 
Age, the mystery of every Palzontologist, is at length estab- 
lished ! 
Sir W. Dawson, referring to the Age of Reptiles, remarks, 
the imagination is taxed io conceive of a state of things in 
which the seas swarmed with great reptiles on every coast. 
When the land was trodden by colossal bipeds and quadrupeds 
in comparison with which our modern elephants were pigmies. 
Dr. Talmage would earn scientific gratitude by producing for 
our inspection a sitigle bone or feather of their destroyers. 
The majority of Palzeontologists everywhere to-day are 
of opinion that birds descend from reptiles. At the interna- 
tional congress (zoological) held at Cambridge a short time 
since, which was attended by the chief scientific men in Europe, 
and some from America also, at the third day’s proceedings I 
find Professor Seeley, of Columbia University, New York, 
began by remarking that thirty years ago birds and reptiles 
were united together owing to the discovery of many features 
in the skeletons of some fossil reptiles previously known only 
in birds. The meeting of this congress of zoology and physi- 
ology was recognized by the University of Cambridge as a 
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