47 



foundation as the proof that any fossil bone once formed part 

 of the skeleton of a living animal. A special creation of a 

 single bone is as probable as the special creation of a single 

 species. The method of the palaeontologist in the investigation 

 of the one, is the method for the other. The only choice lies 

 between natural derivation and supernatural creation. 



For such reasons it is now regarded among the active 

 workers in science as a waste of time to discuss the truth of 

 Evolution. The battle on this point has been fought, and won. 



The geographical distribution of animals and plants, as well 

 as their migrations, have received muck new light from Pate- 

 ontology. The fossils found in some natural divisions of the 

 earth are related so closely to the forms now living there, that 

 a genetic connection between them can hardly be doubted. 

 The extinct Marsupials of Australia, and the Edentates of 

 South America, are well known examples. The Pliocene hip- 

 popotami of Asia and the South of Europe, point directly to 

 migrations from Africa. Other similar examples are numerous. 

 The fossil plants of the Arctic region prove the existence of a 

 climate there far milder than at present, and recent researches 

 at least render more probable the suggestion, made long ago by 

 Buffon, in his " Epochs of Nature," that life began in the polar 

 regions, and by successive migrations from them the conti- 

 nents were peopled. 



The great services which Comparative Anatomy rendered to 

 Palaeontology at the hands of Cuvier, Agassiz, Owen, and 

 others, have been amply repaid. The solution of some of the 

 most difficult problems in Anatomy has received scarcely less 

 aid from the extinct forms discovered, than from Embryology ; 

 and the two lines of research supplement each other. Our 

 present knowledge of the vertebrate skull, the limb-arches, and 

 the limbs, has been much enlarged by researches in Palaeontol- 

 ogy. On the other hand, the recent labors of Gegenbaur, 

 Huxley, Parker, Balfour, and Thacher, will make clear many 

 obscure points in ancient Life. 



