280 



EXPLANATIONS. 



badger of the present day. Our existing Meles Taxus 

 is, therefore, acknowledged by Mr. Owen to be " the oldest 

 known species of mammal on the face of the earth." It 

 is in like manner impossible to discover any difference 

 between the present Wild Cat and that which lived in 

 the bone caves with the hyaena, rhinoceros, and the tiger 

 of the ante- drift era, all of which are said to be extinct 

 species. So also the otter has survived since an early 

 period in the pliocene, while so many larger animals were 

 shifted. The learned anatomist takes occasion from these 

 facts to speak of a survival by small and weak species of 

 geological changes, which have been accompanied by the 

 extirpation of larger and more formidable animals of allied 

 species. The inference from the facts and doctrines of 

 this school is, that Divine power has seen fit to change 

 the species of elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, and bears, 

 using special miracles to introduce new ones, one with 

 perhaps an additional tooth, another with a new tubercle 

 or cusp on the third molar, and so forth, while he has 

 seen no occasion for a similar interference with the otter, 

 wild cat, and badger, which accordingly have been left 

 undisturbed in their obscurity. Such may be the belief 

 of men of science anxious to support a theory ; but as- 

 suredly it will never be received by any ordinary men of 

 fair understandings who may be able to read and compre- 

 hend the works of Mr. Owen. It were too much for even 

 \ child's faith. Yet the Edinburgh reviewer, a member 

 of this school, talks of "credulity ! " 



Perhaps it is but justice to Professor Pictet to notice 

 his partial dissent from the reigning doctrine on this point. 

 This learned person, finding that the elder alluvion of the 

 Swiss valleys presents mammals identical with those 

 which now live there, though accompanied by remains 

 of elephants, and considering further that " the bats, 

 shrews, moles, badgers, hares, &c., of the caverns appear 

 to be identical with our own," concludes that the follow 

 ing was the order of events as they occurred in Europe: 

 " The species now living, and some others, were created 

 at the commencement of the diluvial epoch. Partial in- 

 undations and changes of temperature caused some of 

 them to perish, such as the mammoth, the species of 

 bear having an arched forehead, the hyaenas, the stag 

 with gigantic horns, the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, &c. ; 

 but the greater number of the species escaped thes« 



