498 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol.. XXVI. No. 668 



that could be added, however, the eon- 

 temporary verdict must be somewhat modi- 

 fied. Cuvier was a very great man of 

 most impressive personality, wide versa- 

 tility, extraordinary industry, vast knowl- 

 edge of zoological and anatomical details, 

 an excellent historian, a useful critic, and 

 of good judgment in affairs generally, but 

 although a greater all-round man, as a 

 systematic zoologist he was not the equal 

 of a couple of his French contemporaries, 

 Blainville or Latreille. We have either to 

 admit this conclusion or confess that our 

 now universally admitted views are wrong. 

 Nevertheless, Cuvier 's work was of great 

 importance, and he first brought to the 

 aid of systematic zoology the new science 

 of vertebrate paleontology. 



CUVIEE AND PALEONTOLOGY 



The animals, and especially the verte- 

 brates, of past ages were practically un- 

 known to the early zoologists, and when 

 they had large collections, as did Volta of 

 the fishes of Mount Bolca, they identified 

 them with modern species, or, with 

 Scheuchzer, might consider a giant sal- 

 amander as a man witness of the deluge — 

 ■'Homo diluvii testis"! It was not until 

 Cuvier, with superior knowledge of skeletal 

 details, examined numerous bones un- 

 earthed from the Tertiary beds about Paris, 

 that the complete distinction of animals of 

 ancient formations from living species was 

 recognized. Then was afforded the first 

 glimpse of extinct faunas destined to far 

 outnumber the existing one, but so im- 

 perfect was the great paleontologist's fore- 

 sight of what lay in store for the future 

 that he enunciated a dogma which was 

 long accepted as sacrosanct; he called it 

 the law of correlation of structure. A 

 striking and even amusing example of its 

 exposition and its failure I have previojasly 

 drawn attention to. 



Professor Huxley, in his excellent "In- 

 troduction to the Classification of Ani- 

 mals" (published in 1869), in his first 

 chapter, "On Classification in General," 

 concluded a consideration of Cuvier 's law 

 of the correlation of structure with the 

 following paragraphs : 



Cuvier, the more servile of vrhose imitators are 

 fond of citing liis mistalcen doctrines as to the 

 nature of the methods of paleontology against the 

 conclusions of logic and of common sense, has put 

 this so strongly that I can not refrain from quo- 

 ting his words." 



But I doubt if any one would have divined, if 

 untaught by observation, that all ruminants have 

 the foot cleft, and that they alone have it. I 

 doubt if any one would have divined that there 

 are frontal horns only in this class ; that those 

 among them which have sharp canines for the 

 most part lack horns. 



However, since these relations are constant, 

 they must have some suiHcient cause; but since 

 we are ignorant of it, we must make good the 

 defect of the theory by means of observation; it 

 enables us to establish empirical laws, which be- 

 come almost as certain as rational laws, when 

 they rest on sufficiently repeated observations; so 

 that now, whoso sees merely the print of a cleft 

 foot may conclude that the animal which left this 

 impression ruminated, and this conclusion is as 

 certain as any other in physics or morals. This 

 footprint alone, then, yields to him who observes 

 it, the form of the teeth, the form of the jaws, 

 the form of the vertebriie, the form of all the bones 

 of the legs, of the thighs, of the shoulders, and of 

 the pelvis of the animal which has passed by; it 

 is a surer mark than all those of Zadig. 



The first perusal of these remarks would 

 occasion surprise to some and immediately 

 induce a second, more careful reading to 

 ascertain whether they had not been mis- 

 understood. Men much inferior in ca- 

 pacity to Cuvier or Huxley may at once 

 recall living exceptions to the positive 

 statements as to the coordination of the 

 "foot cleft" with the other characteristics 

 specified. One of the most common of 

 domesticated animals — the hog — may come 

 up before the "mind's eye," if not the 



" " Ossemens fossiles," ed. 4me, tome Ir, p. 184. 



