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must have been introduced in some abrupt manner, and that their variations 

 have been within narrow limits and not progressive. This is the more 

 remarkable, since great changes of level and of climate have occurred, and 

 many species have been obliged to change their geographical distribution, 

 but have not been forced to vary more widely than in the Post-pliocene 

 period itself. 



Facts of this kind will attract little attention in comparison with the bold 

 and attractive speculations of men who can launch their opinions from the 

 rantage- ground of London journals ; but their gradual accumulation must 

 some day sweep away the fabric of evolution, and restore our English science 

 to the domain of common sense and sound induction. Fortunately also, 

 ^ there are workers in this field beyond the limits of the English-speaking- 

 world. As an eminent example, we may refer to Joachim Barrande, the 

 illustrious paleeontologist of Bohemia, and the greatest authority on the 

 wonderful fauna of his own primordial rocks. In his recent memoir on those 

 ancient and curious crustaceans, the Trilobites, published in advance of the 

 supplement to vol. i. of the Silurian System of Bohemia, he deals a most 

 damaging blow at the theory of evolution, showing conclusively that no such 

 progressive development is reconcilable with the facts presented by the 

 primordial fauna. The Trilobites are very well adapted to such an investi- 

 gation. They constitute a well-marked group of animals trenchantly sepa- 

 rated from all others. They extend through the whole enormous length of 

 the Paloeozoic period, and are represented by numerous genera and species. 

 They ceased altogether at an early period of the earth's geological history, so 

 that their account with nature has been closed, and we are in a condition to 

 sum it up and strike the balance of profit and loss. Barrande, in an elaborate 

 essay of 282 pages, brings to bear on the history of these creatures his whole 

 vast stores of information, in a manner most conclusive in its refutation of 

 theories of progressive development. 



It would be impossible here to give an adequate summary of his facts and 

 reasoning. A mere example must suffice. In the earlier part of the memoir 

 he takes up the modifications of the head, the thorax, and the pygidium or 

 tail-piece of the Trijobites, in geological time, showing that numerous and 

 remarkable as these modifications are in structure, in form, and in ornamen- 

 tation, no law of development can be traced in them. For example, in the 

 number of segments or joints of the thorax we find some Trilobites with 

 only one to four segments, others with as many as fourteen to twenty-six, 

 while a great many species have medium or intervening numbers. Now in 

 the early primordial fauna the prevalent Trilobites are at the extremes, some 

 with very few segments, as Agnostus; others with very many, as Faracloxides. 

 The genera with the medium segments are more characteristic of the later 

 faunas. There is thus no progression. If the evolutionist holds that the 

 few-jointed forms are embryonic, or more like to the young of the others, 

 then on his theory they should have precedence, but they are contemporary 

 with forms having the greatest number of joints, and Barrande shows that 



