22 



period was, the accurate determination of fossils by compar- 

 ison with living forms. This "will separate it from the two 

 former epochs. Another distinctive feature of this period was 

 the general belief that, every species, recent and extinct, was 

 a separate creation. 



At the very beginning of the epoch we are now to consider, 

 three names stand out in bold relief: Cuvier, Lamarck, and 

 William Smith. To these men, the science of palaeontology 

 owes its origin. Cuvier and Lamarck, in France, had all the 

 power which great talent, education, and station coiild give ; 

 William Smith, an English surveyor, was without culture or 

 influence. The last years of the eighteenth century had been 

 spent by each of these men in preparation for his chosen 

 work, and the results were now given to the world. Cuvier 

 laid the foundation of the palaeontology of Vertebrate animals ; 

 Lamarck, of the Invertebrates ; and Smith established the prin- 

 ciples of Stratigraphical Palaeontology. The investigator of 

 fossils to-day seldom needs to consult earlier authors of the 

 science. 



George Cuvier (1769-1832), the most famous naturalist of his 

 time, was led to the study of extinct animals by ascertaining 

 that the remains of fossil elephants he examined were extinct 

 species. " This idea," he says later, " which I announced to 

 the Institute in the month of January 1796, opened to me 

 views entirely new respecting the theory of the earth, and 

 determined me to devote myself to the long researches and to 

 the assiduous labors which have now occupied me for twenty- 

 five years."* 



It is interesting to note here that in this first investigation 

 of fossil vertebrates, Cuvier employed the same method that 

 gave him such important results in his later researches. Remains 

 of elephants had been known to Europe for centuries, and many 

 authors, from Pliny down to the contemporaries of Cuvier, had 

 written about them. Some had regarded the bones as those of 

 human giants, and those who recognized what they were consid- 

 ered them remains of the elephants inrported by Hannibal or 

 * Ossemens Fossiles, Second Edition, "Vol. I, p. 178. 



