DARWIN AND PALEONTOLOGY 



and having still others to disclaim, I may now 

 claim for paleontology as its transcendent power 

 that it alone of the biological sciences can pro- 

 duce evidence of the reign of definiteness, of 

 order, of law in the origin and early history of 

 certain adaptive characters, because in the hard 

 parts of animals it alone is in with organs before 

 their beginnings and from their beginnings to 

 their finahties. The beginning of new charac- 

 ters is at once the central problem and the most 

 mysterious problem of evolution. In using the 

 word " beginnings " or " origins " we do not 

 imply causes but simply appearances in order of 

 time. It is of unique advantage to the paleon- 

 tologist as an observer of the origin of new char- 

 acters that concentrating his attention on single 

 characters entirely irrespective of the species 

 question, which is wholly a by-question, he may 

 trace new characters from the period before their 

 origin, through their first adumbrations, through 

 the stages which may be denominated as origins, 

 through their every subsequent change, through 

 their entire history, in fact. In this long-Hved 

 sense as an observer the paleontologist is immor- 

 tal in contrast -with those mortal observers, the 

 zoologists and experimentalists. 



Second, in successive series of animals such as 

 horses, rhinoceroses, or the related titanotheres, 

 the paleontologist may observe the behavior of a 

 very large nimiber of characters at the same time 

 and through long periods of time, some rising, 



