HISTORY AND METHODS OF PALEONTOLOGICAL 

 DISCOVERY. 



In the rapid progress of knowledge, we are constantly 

 brought face to face with the question, What is Life ? The 

 answer is not yet, but a thousand earnest seekers after truth 

 seem to be slowly approaching a solution. This question gives 

 a new interest to every department of science that relates to 

 life in any form, and the history of life offers a most sug- 

 gestive field for research. One line of investigation lies 

 through embryology, and here the advance is most encourag- 

 ing. Another promising path leads back through the life 

 history of the globe, and in this direction we may hope for 

 increasing light, as a reward for patient work. 



The plants and animals now living on the earth interest alike 

 the savage and the savant, and hence have been carefully 

 observed in every age of human history. The life of the 

 remote past, however, is preserved only in scanty records, 

 buried in the earth, and therefore readily escapes attention. 

 For these reasons, the study of ancient life is one of the latest 

 of modern sciences, and among the most'difficult. In view of 

 the great advances which this department of knowledge has 

 made within the last decade, especially in this country, I have 

 thought it fitting to the present occasion to review briefly 

 its development, and have chosen for my subject this even- 

 ing, The History and Methods of Pal^eontological 

 Discovery. 



