THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



Vol. XLVI April, 1912 No. 544 



THE CONTINUOUS ORIGIN OF CERTAIN UNIT 

 CHARACTERS AS OBSERVED BY A 

 PALEONTOLOGIST 1 



DR. HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN 



One method of ascertaining the height of a mountain 

 is with a single instrument, the barometer; another 

 method is by triangulation with several instruments. 

 Thus we may differ from Johannsen in his remark that 

 morphology as a science of great collections in museums 

 is of no value in genetics. The brilliant progress in 

 heredity of the last nine years, beginning in 1903 with 

 the rediscovery of Mendel's law, should not blind us to 

 the four broad inductions from paleontology, 2 that trans- 

 formation is a matter of thousands or hundreds of thou- 

 sands of years, that to the living observer all hying 

 things may be delusively stationary, that invisible tides 

 of genetic change may be setting in one direction or 

 another observable only over very long periods ot time, 



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