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THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. II. 



forms around us, and by acquiring an intimate knowledge 

 of their osseous framework or skeleton, that we can hope 

 to decipher the handwriting on the rock, obtain a clue to 

 guide us through the labyrinth of fossil anatomy, and con- 

 duct to those interesting results, which the genius of the 

 immortal Cuvier first taught us how to acquire. And here 

 it will be necessary to enter upon the consideration of those 

 admirable principles of the correlation of structure in 

 organized beings, that were first announced by that illus- 

 trious philosopher, and which form the basis of all palae- 

 ontological knowledge. 



The organs of every animal, observes Baron Cuvier, must 

 be regarded as forming a machine, the parts of which are 

 mutually dependent on each other, and exquisitely adapted 

 for the functions they are destined to perform ; and such is 

 the intimate relation of the several organs, that any varia- 

 tion in one part, is constantly accompanied by a correspond- 

 ing modification in another. This correlation, or mutual 

 adaptation of the several parts of the animal fabric, is a law 

 of organic structure, which, like every other induction of 

 physical truth, has only been established by patient and 

 laborious investigation. It is by the knowledge of this law 

 that we are enabled to reassemble, as it were, the scattered 

 remains of the beings of a former state of the globe, — to 

 determine their place in the scale of animated nature, — 

 and to reason on their organization, habits, and economy, 

 with as much clearness and certainty, as if they were still 

 living and before us. 



I will demonstrate this proposition by a few examples. 

 Of all the solid parts of the animal frame the most obviously 

 mechanical are the jaws and teeth ; and as we know in each 

 instance the offices they are intended to perform, these 

 organs aiford the most simple and striking illustration of 

 the principles above enunciated. 



12. Osteology of the caknivora. — If we examine the 



