6 Berry — Present Tendencies in Paleontology. 



south there are many breaks. Neither section could be 

 correctly interpreted in the absence of the other. 



Progress in paleontology can only result from the 

 action and reaction of the two parallel lines of human 

 endeavor, namely, the accumulation of facts through 

 exploration, research and discovery, and the elucidation 

 of the accumulated facts through advances in philosophic 

 interpretation. The temple of science remains merely 

 a pile of bricks and stone until each brick and stone is 

 fitted into its proper niche. These two lines of endeavor 

 rarely develop proportionately. The accumulation of 

 fact usually far outruns their adequate interpretation, 

 for example, paleontology made rapid progress in the 

 early years of the 19th century through the discoveries 

 of Cuvier 1769-1832 and because of his genius as a com- 

 parative anatomist. It was checked by his conspicuous 

 failure as a natural philosopher, exemplified in the 

 invertebrate field by d'Orbigny's (1802-57) 27 distinct 

 creations. His successor Owen (1804-1892) was simi- 

 arly endowed with gifts of descriptive industry and was 

 a still greater failure as a philosopher. The slowing of 

 the wheels of progress by false philosophy is well illus- 

 trated by the historic influence of the dogmatic doctrines 

 of the so-called Neptunists emanating from Werner and 

 his students (1750-1817). One might mention many 

 similar instances nearer our own day if more were nec- 

 essary. 



It would be a fine thing if paleontologists could imitate 

 the practice of business concerns in periodically taking 

 an inventory and making up a balance sheet, writing off 

 the moribund theories and discarding obsolete methods, 

 and determining if there was sufficient gold in the treas- 

 ury as a reserve for the paper in circulation. For years, 

 invertebrate, vertebrate and plant paleontologists have 

 seemingly been largely actuated by a desire to merely 

 multiply the diversity of the organic record. Zittel was 

 the first to bring into prominence the truism that fossils 

 are not primarily " things dug" and to be studied like 

 minerals, but as belonging to the dynamic world of once 

 living things — a part of a biota and something multifa- 

 riously interacting with the particular organic and 

 physical environment. Vertebrate paleontology has 

 probably been foremost in stressing the biologic aspect 

 of the subject, while the others and particularly the plant 



