ZOOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 353 



of learning there were fantastic and grotesque misconceptions. The 

 idea of the resurrection bone was one of these — the belief that in the 

 body there was an indestructible bone that formed the nucleus of the 

 resurrection body. This view was demonstrated to be untenable by 

 Vesalius, the reformer of anatomy in the sixteenth century and the 

 forerunner of the morphologists of zoology. Other points about the 

 structure of man and animals, equally fantastic, were upheld, and 

 against one who ventured to disbelieve in them the cry of heretic was 

 raised. We may at first sight think that crude misunderstandings are 

 harmless vagaries, but when viewed as to their consequences we see that 

 this class of superstitions has led to intolerance and persecutions. As 

 illustrations there come to mind the horrors of the inquisition, the 

 cruel and harmful ideas of witchcraft, the brutal and wicked persecu- 

 tion of men and women for holding saner views than the majority of 

 mankind of the part played by the Almighty in his universe. It is one 

 of the blessings of progress that mankind has been relatively freed from 

 persecutions of this nature. These grotesque beliefs and superstitions 

 were dispelled by advances in the knowledge of the organization of ani- 

 mals. Wherever investigation in this territory prospered, it shed light 

 and dispelled error. 



From one point of view the fossil remains of extinct animals belong 

 to the sphere of the zoologist, for the fossil animals were the ancestors 

 of the living ones. It was two zoologists, Cuvier and Lamarck, that 

 founded the science of paleontology, one that of the vertebrate series, 

 and the other that of the invertebrate. When fossil bones were first 

 unearthed they excited stupid wonder and amazement, and the most 

 fantastic theories were proposed to account for them. They were re- 

 garded as bones of giants, as remains deposited by the deluge, etc., but 

 finally were accepted as the remains of former races of animals and 

 were turned to account as supplying an index to the past history of the 

 earth. The constantly increasing collections of fossil remains of ani- 

 mals are enabling us to understand something of the momentous 

 changes that have passed over the succession of animal forms that have 

 lived upon the globe. The accounts of the discoveries of prehuman 

 remains, connecting by gradations with races now living, are extending 

 into remote periods our conception of the antiquity of man. These 

 matters arouse interest and discussion, and the sweep of all these dis- 

 coveries brings with it a widening of the horizon of human understand- 

 ing. The historical relations of fossils have been established by a great 

 number of talented observers. Without any disparagement to other 

 men who have done notable work in this field, I mention but one, Henry 

 I\ Osborn, of New York, who is one of our most distinguished Ameri- 

 can zoologists. With the enormous collections at his disposal he has 

 devoted himself with marked success to making out the relations of 



