62 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



surely not unreasonable that forms which have become extinct and 

 have left only very imperfect evidence of their structure and affinities, 

 and these requiring peculiar methods for their study, should attract 

 the attention of special investigators. 



The study of fossils, we may remark, if it be undertaken by any 

 biologists, must fall to systematic zoologists and botanists, and these 

 have become somewhat rare and out-of-fashion in modern times — 

 so few in numbers, indeed, do they seem as to be scarcely able to 

 cope with the ever-increasing array of hving forms ; and it would 

 be a hopeless task if upon them were also cast the overwhelming 

 mass of fossil ones. 



Imagine the embarrassment and dismay of a student of living 

 sponges, whose favourite (possibly his only) method of research has 

 consisted in studying with the microscope iunumerable thin slices 

 cut from tissues and embryos, if a cartload of chalk flints were 

 thrown down at his door, and he were required to interpret the frag- 

 ments of sponge-skeletons which they contained in every conceivable 

 variety of disguise through peculiar processes of mineralization ! 



There are, indeed, a variety of special reasons why ordinary 

 systematic zoologists and botanists become, by the very habits 

 acquired in their daily pursuits, singularly ill fitted for dealing with 

 fossil forms. 



In studying recent forms the zoologist or botanist is bound to take 

 into cousiderarion, in fixing the systematic position of an organism, 

 not only its skeleton, but all its soft parts, and even the structure 

 and mode of development of its embryo ; he may also be called upon 

 to note physiological peculiarities, before he is in a position to arrive 

 at a decision as to its place in the zoological or botanical series. 

 But for the student of fossil forms none of these aids are available, 

 he is compelled to do his best without them. Investigators of the 

 recent ITollusca are, of course, " Malacologists," but he who studies 

 the extinct forms of the group must perforce labour under the stigma 

 of being " a mere Conchologist." In examining recent vertebrates it 

 is allowable to make every possible use of the aid aff'orded by a 

 study of the ligamental skeleton in unravelling their affinities ; but 

 he who works on fossil vertebrates is and must remain a pure Oste- 

 ologist. Botanists have been led to the conclusion that for the 

 classification of plants the reproductive organs always aff'ord the 

 safest guides ; but palaeontologists, alas ! are frequently called upon 

 to do their best in deciphering fragmentary remains of the vegetative 

 organs. 



