The Peixciples of Palaeois^tology. 13Y 



selves with examining minerals and rocks, to which without 

 exception they attributed a marine origin. The contest between 

 the Vulcanists and Neptunists occupied the end of the eigh- 

 teenth century, and palaeontologic researches were relegated to a 

 secondary place. 



The real progress achieved during that century was due 

 principally to a return to more correct ideas in the domain 

 of geogenic theory. Ya^lisneei sought to separate scientific 

 data" from the interpretation of Genesis. But the principal 

 honor of the change effected belongs to Mor ) (1740) and 

 his commentator Generklli (1749). This latter recapitulates 

 and admits whatever correct ideas had been suggested before his 

 time. He demands that no one shall invoke divine authority for 

 the. support of his own ideas, or suppose miracles for the sole 

 end of confirming his hypotheses. 



It is easy to see under what a clear horizon the epoch of Cuvier 

 dawned. The path of the great naturalist was prepared, serious 

 writings on the subject were at hand ; still it can not be asserted 

 that Palaeontology was as yet firmly established as an independ- 

 ent science ; the fundamental principles which authorize the 

 comparison of fossil remains with existing creatures, were not yet 

 stated. Their discovery is one of Cuvier's greatest titles to 

 honor. 



Second Period. — It may be said that the precise and dogmatic 

 genius of Cuvier created Palaeontology and, furthermore, that he 

 for a long while gave it an impulse and an attraction that has 

 with difiiculty been modified. It was mainly through the appli- 

 cation of the principle of the correlation of forms that Cuvier 

 arrived at his interesting conclusions. He studied in detail the 

 fossil remains taken from the gypsum beds of Paris and its envi- 

 rons, and pointed out the resemblances and diversities between 

 these types and the living forms of our period. He discriminated 

 those forms which we at present consider as ancestral ones, Paloeo- 

 therium^ Xiphodon^ Dichohune, etc., and pointed out how each of 

 these reveals characteristics peculiar to- diverse groups at present 

 distinct. The discovery of marsupials in the gypsum of Paris 

 was a most important event in the history of Palaeontology and 

 Comparative Anatomy. It inaugurated a new method which 

 was destined to give the happiest results for the study of fossil 

 18 



