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ILLUSTRATIONS OF 
be an object of much interest with your Geological 
Committee to obtain a good collection of them, 
wherewith to enrich your museum ; and the study 
of them may now be pursued with advantage and 
interest, for of late years much has been done towards 
elucidating the peculiarities of fossil remains, and 
connecting them with the present state of geological 
science. • 
To Cuvier we owe much in this respect. In 
the hands of this distinguished naturalist," says Mr. 
Murchison, " Natural History became adorned for 
the first time with the highest attributes of pure 
philosophy. To him we owe the most important 
of the laws which have regulated the distribution 
of the animal kingdom, and by the application of 
which we have been made to comprehend many 
of the mutations on the surface of our planet. He it 
was who, removing from geology the incumbrance of 
errors and conceits heaped on it by cosmogonists, 
contributed more than any individual of his century 
to raise it to the place which it is assuming among the 
exacter sciences. Unlike our predecessors, we no lon- 
ger have to wade through the doubts and perplexities 
which retarded their acquaintance with the lost types of 
creation ; to his skill we are indebted for a knowledge 
of their analogies with existing races ; and he it was 
who from their scattered bones, remodelled the skele- 
tons of those wondrous originals which have succes- 
sively passed away from the surface of our planet." 
No one then will dream of doubting that to those 
who are disposed to become acquainted with the 
