154 



LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



another, and though stratigraphic boundaries are 

 often barriers confining the persistence of some form, 

 still this is not an absolute rule, since the species in 

 nowise appear in their entirety." * At present the 

 persistence of genera like Saccamina, Lingula, Cera- 

 todus, etc., from one age to another, or even through 

 two or more geological ages, is well known, while 

 Atrypa reticulatus, a species of world-wide distribu- 

 tion, lived from near the beginning of the Upper 

 Silurian to the Waverly or beginning of the Carbonif- 

 erous age. 



Such were the views of the distinguished founder 

 of vertebrate palaeontology. When we compare the 

 HydrogMogie of Lamarck with Cuvier's Discours, we 

 see, though some erroneous views, some very fantas- 

 tic conceptions are held, in common with others of 

 his time, in regard to changes of level of the land 

 and the origin of the crystalline rocks, that it did 

 contain the principles upon which modern palaeontol- 

 ogy is founded, while those of Cuvier are now in 

 the limbo — so densely populated — of exploded, ill- 

 founded theories. 



Our claim that Lamarck should share with Cuvier 

 the honor of being a founder of palaeontology f is 



* Bernard's History and Methods of Paleontological Discovery 

 (1879), p. 23. 



f In his valuable and comprehensive Geschichte der Geologic und 

 Paldontologie (i?>qq), Prof. K. von Zittel, while referring to Lamarck's 

 works on the tertiary shells of Paris and his Animaux savs Vertebres, 

 also giving a just and full account of his life, practically gives him the 

 credit of being one of the founders of invertebrate palaeontology. He 

 speaks of him as " the reformer and founder of scientific conchology," 

 and states that "he defined with wonderful acuteness the numerous 

 genera and species of invertebrate animals, and created thereby for 

 the ten years following an authoritative foundation." Zittel, how- 



