20 THE DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS. [bull. 80. 



boniferous in the Paleozoic, and its relation to " Old Red sandstone" 

 and " New Red sandstone," are two distinct issues. Stratigraphically, 

 the relation of the Coal Measures and its associated Carboniferous 

 limestones and Millstone Grit with the Old Red sandstone below and 

 the New Red sandstone above, was well established, but the division 

 line, which separates our Paleozoic from Mesozoic, was not drawn until 

 the fossils had been carefully studied. 



Originally, and beginning with the works of Bakewell and De la 

 Beche, and Conybeare and Phillips, above mentioned, the Carbonifer- 

 ous Coal Measures were associated with the Secondary rocks of Wer- 

 ner, and we find in the latter work, 1 which, it will be noticed, was pub- 

 lished in 1822, that the " Old Red sandstone " in part is also included in 

 what is called the " Medial or Carboniferous order." This was the first 

 step toward the modern classification into Paleozoic and Mesozoic. 

 By the majority of geologists for several years later than 1822, the Old 

 Red sandstone and the Carboniferous were included in the Secondary, 

 and the rocks below 2 were placed in the Transition or Grauwacke of 

 the older classifications. 



It was John Phillips 3 who first clearly conceived the importance of 

 associating the Carboniferous, the Devonian, and the Magnesian lime- 

 stones together, and separating them from the rest of the New Red 

 formation, to form the upper part of the Paleozoic strata. This brought 

 the demarkation between the ancient (Paleozoic) fauna and the middle 

 (Mesozoic) fauna at the top of the Permian, or, in England, at the top 

 of the Magnesian limestones ; and the distinction was based purely 

 upon the study of the contained fossils. This was first suggested in the 

 articles in the Penny Encyclopedia, in 1840 and 1841, entitled "Paleo- 

 zoic Rocks" and " Saliferous system," and the statement that Phillips 

 is responsible for so extending the Paleozoic is given in his " Paleozoic 

 Fossils." 4 The term "Paleozoic" was suggested by Sedgwick to take 

 the place of " Protozoic," the term which Murchisou applied to the 

 rocks described in his " Silurian system," and which were regarded as 

 belonging to the Transition strata of the Wernerians. 



Thus it will be seen that the grand distinction between Mesozoic and 

 Paleozoic, as now understood, was entirely determined by the fossils. 



The study of the Devonian rocks, and the determination of their 

 position by Lonsdale in 1837, furnish another example of the applica- 

 tion^ paleontology in perfecting classification. The rocks themselves, 

 their stratigraphy, their relations to other rocks, had been carefully 

 studied by Murchison and De la Beche, and by numerous others in a 

 more irregular way, prior to 1838, but the identification of their fossil 

 contents by Lonsdale, and their comparison with the fossils of other 

 formations, made it possible for him to assert positively that the posi- 



1 Conybeare and Phillips's Geology, etc. 



2 The Silurian, Cambrian, and, as we see in De la Beche, the Devonian systems. 



8 Author of "Paleozoic Fossils of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset," published in 18*1. 

 •Page 160. 



