liv PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



It negatives those doctrines ; for it either shows us no evidence of 

 any such modification, or demonstrates it to have been very slight ; 

 and as to the natui^e of that modification, it jields no evidence 

 whatsoever that the earlier members of any long- continued group 

 were more generalized in structure than the later ones. To a 

 certain extent, indeed, it may be said that imperfect ossification 

 of the vertebral column is an embryonic character ; but, on the other 

 hand, it would be extremely incorrect to suppose that the vertebral 

 columns of the older Yertebrata are in any sense embryonic in their 

 whole structure. 



Obviously, if the earliest fossiliferous rocks now known are coeval 

 with the commencement of life, and if their contents give us any 

 just conception of the nature and the extent of the earliest fauna 

 and flora, the insignificant amount of modification which can be 

 demonstrated to have taken place in any one group of animals or 

 plants is quite incompatible with the hypothesis that all Kving 

 forms are the results of a necessary process of progressive develop- 

 ment, entirely comprised within the time represented by the fossili- 

 ferous rocks. 



Contrariwise, any admissible hypothesis of progressive modification 

 must be compatible with persistence without progression through 

 indefinite periods. And should such an hypothesis eventually be 

 proved to be true, in the only way in which it can be demonstrated, 

 viz., by observation and experiment upon the existing forms of life, 

 the conclusion will inevitably present itself, that the Palaeozoic, Meso- 

 zoic, and Cainozoic faunae and florae, taken together, bear somewhat 

 the same proportion to the whole series of living beings which have 

 occupied this globe, as the existing fauna and flora do to them. 



Such are the results of palaeontology as they appear, and have for 

 some years appeared, to the mind of an inquirer who regards that 

 study simply as one of the applications of the great biological sciences, 

 and who desires to see it placed upon the same sound basis as other 

 branches of physical inquiry. If the arguments which have been 

 brought forward are valid, probably no one, in view of the present 

 state of opinion, vnll be inclined to think the time wasted which 

 has been spent upon their elaboration. 



