310 
OWEN’S POSITION IN 
Toxodon occupied a position between groups 
which, in existing nature, are now widely separated. 
The existence of one more extinct ‘ intercalary ’ 
type was established. 
From another point of view, this maiden essay 
in palaeontology possesses great interest. 
It is with reference to Owen’s report upon 
the remains of Toxodon that Darwin remarks 
in his journal, six years later : ‘ How wonder- 
fully are the different orders, at the present time 
so well separated, blended together in different 
points of the structure of the Toxodon ! ’ while, 
in his pocket-book for 1837, he records: ‘In 
July opened first note-book on Transmutation of 
Species. Had been greatly struck from about 
the month of previous March on character of 
South American fossils, and species on Galapagos 
Archipelago. These facts (especially latter) origin 
of all my views.’ ^ 
Unless it be in the ‘ Ossemens Fossiles,’ I do 
not know where one is to look for contributions to 
palaeontology more varied, more numerous, and, 
on the whole, more accurate, than those which 
Owen poured forth in rapid succession between 
1837 and 1888. Yet there was no lack of strong 
contemporaries at work in the same field. De 
Blainville’s ‘ Ostdographie ; ’ Louis Agassiz’s 
monumental work on fossil fishes, achieved under 
the pressure of great obstacles and full of brilliant 
‘ Life and Letters, vol. i. p. 276. 
