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diff --git a/old/67527-0.txt b/old/67527-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 74a9433..0000000 --- a/old/67527-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,10510 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Foot-prints of the Creator: or, -The Asterolepis of Stromness, by Hugh Miller - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Foot-prints of the Creator: or, The Asterolepis of Stromness - -Author: Hugh Miller - -Contributor: Louis Agassiz - -Release Date: February 28, 2022 [eBook #67527] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned - images of public domain material from the Google Books - project.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOOT-PRINTS OF THE -CREATOR: OR, THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS *** - - - - - - -[Illustration: Engraved by J. Sartain.—From a original Talbotype. - -Gould & Lincoln, Boston] - - - - - THE - FOOT-PRINTS OF THE CREATOR: - OR, - THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS. - - BY - HUGH MILLER, - AUTHOR OF “THE OLD RED SANDSTONE,” ETC. - - “When I asked him how this earth could have been repeopled if - ever it had undergone the same fate it was threatened with by - the comet of 1680, he answered,—‘that required the power of a - Creator.’”—_Conduit’s “Conversation with Sir Isaac Newton”._ - - FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION. - - WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR - BY LOUIS AGASSIZ. - - BOSTON: - GOULD AND LINCOLN. - 69 WASHINGTON STREET. - NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. - CINCINNATI: GEO. S. BLANCHARD. - 1868. - - Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by - GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, - In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of - Massachusetts. - - - - -TO SIR PHILIP DE MALPAS GREY EGERTON, BART. M.P., F.R.S. & G.S. - - -To you, Sir, as our highest British authority on fossil fishes, I take -the liberty of dedicating this little volume. In tracing the history of -Creation, as illustrated in that ichthyic division of the vertebrata -which is at once the most ancient and the most extensively preserved, I -have introduced a considerable amount of fact and observation, for the -general integrity of which my appeal must lie, not to the writings of my -friends the geologists, but to the strangely significant record inscribed -in the rocks, which it is their highest merit justly to interpret and -faithfully to transcribe. The ingenious and popular author whose views -on Creation I attempt controverting, virtually carries his appeal from -science to the want of it. I would fain adopt an opposite course: And -my use, on this occasion, of your name, may serve to evince the desire -which I entertain that the collation of my transcripts of hitherto -uncopied portions of the geologic history with the history itself, -should be in the hands of men qualified, by original vigor of faculty -and the patient research of years, either to detect the erroneous or to -certify the true. Further, I feel peculiar pleasure in availing myself -of the opportunity furnished me, by the publication of this little work, -of giving expression to my sincere respect for one who, occupying a -high place in society, and deriving his descent from names illustrious -in history, has wisely taken up the true position of birth and rank in -an enlightened country and age; and who, in asserting, by his modest, -persevering labors, his proper standing in the scientific world, has -rendered himself first among his countrymen in an interesting department -of Natural Science, to which there is no aristocratic or “royal road.” - - I have the honor to be, Sir, - - With admiration and respect, - - Your obedient humble servant, - - HUGH MILLER. - - - - -TO THE READER. - - -There are chapters in this little volume which will, I am afraid, be -deemed too prolix by the general reader, and which yet the geologist -would like less were there any portion of them away. They refer chiefly -to organisms not hitherto figured nor described, and must owe their -modicum of value to that very minuteness of detail which, by critics of -the merely literary type, unacquainted with fossils, and not greatly -interested in them, may be regarded as a formidable defect, suited -to overlay the general subject of the work. Perhaps the best mode of -compromising the matter may be to intimate, as if by beacon, at the -outset, the more repulsive chapters; somewhat in the way that the -servants of the Humane Society indicate to the skater who frequents in -winter the lakes in the neighborhood of Edinburgh, those parts of the -ice on which he might be in danger of losing himself. I would recommend, -then, readers not particularly palæontological, to pass but lightly over -the whole of my fourth and fifth chapters, with the latter half of the -third, marking, however, as they skim the pages, the conclusions at which -I arrive regarding the bulk and organization of the extraordinary animal -described, and the data on which these are founded. My book, like an -Irish landscape dotted with green bogs, has its portions on which it may -be perilous for the unpractised surveyor to make any considerable stand, -but across which he may safely take his sights and lay down his angles. - -It will, I trust, be found, that in dealing with errors which, in at -least their primary bearing, affect questions of science, I have not -offended against the courtesies of scientific controversy. True, they -are errors which also involve moral consequences. There is a species -of superstition which inclines men to take on trust whatever assumes -the name of science; and which seems to be a reaction on the old -superstition, that had faith in witches, but none in Sir Isaac Newton, -and believed in ghosts, but failed to credit the Gregorian calendar. And, -owing mainly to the wide diffusion of this credulous spirit of the modern -type, as little disposed to examine what it receives as its ancient -unreasoning predecessor, the development doctrines are doing much harm on -both sides of the Atlantic, especially among intelligent mechanics, and -a class of young men engaged in the subordinate departments of trade and -the law. And the harm, thus considerable in amount, must be necessarily -more than merely considerable in degree. For it invariably happens, -that when persons in these walks become materialists, they become also -turbulent subjects and bad men. That belief in the existence after death, -which forms the distinguishing _instinct_ of humanity, is too essential -a part of man’s moral constitution not to be missed when away; and so, -when once fairly eradicated, the life and conduct rarely fail to betray -its absence. But I have not, from any consideration of the mischief thus -effected, written as if arguments, like cannon-balls, could be rendered -more formidable than in the cool state by being made red-hot. I have -not even felt, in discussing the question, as if I had a man before me -as an opponent; for though my work contains numerous references to the -author of the “Vestiges,” I have invariably thought on these occasions, -not of the anonymous writer of the volume, of whom I know nothing, but -simply of an ingenious, well-written book, unfortunate in its facts and -not always very happy in its reasonings. Further, I do not think that -palæontological fact, in its bearing on the points at issue, is of such -a doubtful complexion as to leave the geologist, however much from moral -considerations in earnest in the matter, any very serious excuse for -losing his temper. - -In my reference to the three great divisions of the geologic scale, I -designate as _Palæozoic_ all the fossiliferous rocks, from the first -appearance of organic existence down to the close of the Permian system; -all as _Secondary_, from the close of the Permian system down to the -close of the Cretaceous deposits; and all as _Tertiary_, from the close -of the Cretaceous deposits down to the introduction of man. The wood-cuts -of the volume, of which at least nine tenths of the whole represent -objects never figured before, were drawn and cut by Mr. John Adams of -Edinburgh, (8, Heriot Place,) with a degree of care and skill which has -left me no reason to regret my distance from the London artists and -engravers. So far at least as the objects could be adequately represented -on wood, and in the limited space at Mr. Adams’ command, their truth -is such that I can safely recommend them to the palæontologist. In -the accompanying descriptions, and in my statements of geologic fact -in general, it will, I hope, be seen that I have not exaggerated the -peculiar features on which I have founded, nor rendered truth partial in -order to make it serve a purpose. Where I have reasoned and inferred, -the reader will of course be able to judge for himself whether the -argument be sound or the deduction just; and to weigh, where I have -merely speculated, the probability of the speculation; but as, in at -least _some_ of my statements of fact, he might lie more at my mercy, I -have striven in every instance to make these adequately representative of -the actualities to which they refer. And so, if it be ultimately found -that on some occasions I have misled others, it will, I hope, be also -seen to be only in cases in which I have been mistaken myself. The first -or popular title of my work, “Foot-prints of the Creator,” I owe to Dr. -Hetherington, the well-known historian of the Church of Scotland. My -other various obligations to my friends, literary and scientific, the -reader will find acknowledged in the body of the volume, as the occasion -occurs of availing myself of either the information communicated, or the -organism, recent or extinct, lent me or given. - - - - -HUGH MILLER, AUTHOR OF “OLD RED SANDSTONE” AND “FOOTPRINTS OF THE -CREATOR.” - - -The geological works of Hugh Miller have excited the greatest interest, -not only among scientific men, but also among general readers. There is -in them a freshness of conception, a power of argumentation, a depth -of thought, a purity of feelings, rarely met with in works of that -character, which are well calculated to call forth sympathy, and to -increase the popularity of a science which has already done so much to -expand our views of the Plan of Creation. The scientific illustrations -published by Mr. Miller are most happily combined with considerations of -a higher order, rendering both equally acceptable to the thinking reader. -But what is in a great degree peculiar to our author, is the successful -combination of Christian doctrines with pure scientific truths. On that -account, his works deserve peculiar attention. His generalizations have -nothing of the vagueness which too often characterize the writings -of those authors who have attempted to make the results of science -subservient to the cause of religion. Struck with the beauty of Mr. -Miller’s works, it has for some time past been my wish to see them more -extensively circulated in this country; and I have obtained leave from -the author to publish an American edition of his “Footprints of the -Creator,” for which he has most liberally furnished the publishers with -the admirable wood-cuts of the original. - -While preparing some additional chapters, and various notes illustrative -of certain points alluded to incidentally in this work, it was deemed -advisable to preface it with a short biographical notice of the author. -I had already sketched such a paper, when I became acquainted with a full -memoir of this remarkable man, containing most interesting details of -his earlier life, written by that eminent historian of the “Martyrs of -Science,” the great natural philosopher of Scotland. It has occurred to -me that, owing to the frequent references which I could not avoid to my -own researches, I had better substitute this ample Biography for my short -sketch, with such alterations and additions as the connection in which -it is brought here would require. I therefore proceed to introduce our -author with Sir David Brewster’s own words:— - -Of all the studies which relate to the material universe, there is none, -perhaps, which appeals so powerfully to our senses, or which comes -into such close and immediate contact with our wants and enjoyments, -as that of Geology. In our hourly walks, whether on business or for -pleasure, we tread with heedless step upon the apparently uninteresting -objects which it embraces: but could we rightly interrogate the rounded -pebble at our feet, it would read us an exciting chapter on the history -of primeval times, and would tell us of the convulsions by which it -was wrenched from its parent rock, and of the floods by which it was -abraded and transported to its present humble locality. In our visit to -the picturesque and the sublime in nature, we are brought into closer -proximity to the more interesting phenomena of geology. In the precipices -which protect our rock-girt shores, which flank our mountain glens, or -which variegate our lowland valleys, and in the shapeless fragments at -their base, which the lichen colors, and round which the ivy twines, we -see the remnants of uplifted and shattered beds, which once reposed in -peace at the bottom of the ocean. Nor does the rounded boulder, which -would have defied the lapidary’s wheel of the Giant Age, give forth a -less oracular response from its grave of clay, or from its lair of sand. -Floated by ice from some Alpine summit, or hurried along in torrents of -mud, and floods of water, it may have traversed a quarter of the globe, -amid the crash of falling forests, and the death shrieks of the noble -animals which they sheltered. The mountain range, too, with its catacombs -below, along which the earthquake transmits its terrific sounds, reminds -us of the mighty power by which it was upheaved;—while the lofty peak, -with its cap of ice, or its nostrils of fire, places in our view the -tremendous agencies which have been at work beneath us. - -But it is not merely amid the powers of external nature that the once -hidden things of the Earth are presented to our view. Our temples and -our palaces are formed from the rocks of a primeval age; bearing the -very ripple-marks of a Pre-Adamite ocean,—grooved by the passage of the -once moving boulder, and embosoming the relics of ancient life, and the -plants by which it was sustained. Our dwellings, too, are ornamented with -the variegated limestones,—the indurated tombs of molluscous life,—and -our apartments heated with the carbon of primeval forests, and lighted -with the gaseous element which it confines. The obelisk of granite, -and the colossal bronze which transmit to future ages the deeds of the -hero and the sage, are equally the production of the Earth’s prolific -womb; and from the green bed of the ocean has been raised the pure and -spotless marble, to mould the divine lineaments of beauty, and perpetuate -the expressions of intellectual power. From a remoter age, and a still -greater depth, the primary and secondary rocks have yielded a rich -tribute to the chaplet of rank, and to the processes of art. - -Exhibiting, as it peculiarly does, almost all those objects of interest -and research, Scotland has been diligently studied both by native -and foreign observers; and she has sent into the geological field a -distinguished group of inquirers, who have performed a noble feat in -exploring the general structure of the Earth, in decyphering its ancient -monuments, and in unlocking those storehouses of mineral wealth, from -which civilized man derives the elements of that gigantic power which his -otherwise feeble arm wields over nature. - -The occurrence of shells on the highest mountains, and the remains of -plants and animals, which the most superficial observer could not fail -to notice, in the rocks around him, have for centuries commanded the -attention and exercised the ingenuity of every student of nature. But -though sparks of geological truth were from time to time elicited by -speculative minds, it was not till the end of the last century that -its great lights broke forth, and that it took the form and character -of one of the noblest of the sciences. Without undervaluing the labors -of Werner, and other illustrious foreigners, or those of our southern -countrymen, Mitchell and Smith, at the close of the last century, we -may characterize the commencement of the present as the brightest -period of geological discovery, and place its most active locality in -the northern metropolis of our island. It was doubtless from the Royal -Society of Edinburgh, as a centre, that a great geological impulse was -propagated southward, and it was by the collision of the Wernerian and -Huttonian views, the antagonist theories of water and of fire, that men -of intellectual power were summoned from other studies; and that grand -truths, which fanaticism and intolerance had hitherto abjured, rose -triumphant over the ignorance and bigotry of the age. The Geological -Society of London, which doubtless sprung from the excitement in the -Scottish metropolis, entered on the new field of research with a -faltering step. The prejudices of the English mind had been marshalled -with illiberal violence against the Huttonian doctrines. Infidelity and -Atheism were charged against their supporters; and had there been a -Protestant Inquisition in England at that period of general political -excitement, the geologists of the north would have been immured in its -deepest dungeons. - -Truth, however, marched apace; and though her simple but majestic -procession be often solemn and slow, and her votaries few and dejected, -yet on this, as on every occasion, she triumphed over the most inveterate -prepossessions, and finally took up her abode in those very halls and -institutions where she had been persecuted and reviled. When their -science had been thus acquitted of the charge of impiety and irreligion, -the members of the Geological Society left their humble and timid -position of being the collectors only of _the materials of future -generalizations_, and became at once the most successful observers of -geological phenomena, and the boldest asserters of geological truth. - -In this field of research, in which the physical, as well as the -intellectual, frame of the philosopher is made tributary to science, two -of our countrymen—Sir Roderick Murchison and Sir Charles Lyell—have been -among our most active laborers. From the study of their native glens, -these distinguished travellers, like the Humboldts and the Von Buchs of -the continent, have passed into foreign lands, exploring the north and -the south of Europe, and extending their labors to the eastern ranges of -the Ural and the Timan, and to the Apallachians and the Alleghanies in -the far west. But while our two countrymen were interrogating the strata -of other lands, many able and active laborers had been at work in their -own. - -Among the eminent students of the structure of the earth, Mr. Hugh -Miller holds a lofty place, not merely from the discovery of new and -undescribed organisms in the Old Red Sandstone, but from the accuracy and -beauty of his descriptions, the purity and elegance of his composition, -and the high tone of philosophy and religion which distinguishes all -his writings. Mr. Miller is one of the few individuals in the history -of Scottish science who have raised themselves above the labors of an -humble profession, by the force of their genius and the excellence of -their character, to a comparatively high place in the social scale. -Mr. Telford, like Mr. Miller, followed the profession of a stone-mason, -before his industry and self-tuition qualified him for the higher -functions of an architect and an engineer. And Mr. Watt and Mr. Rennie -rose to wealth and fame without the aid of a university education. But, -distinguished as these individuals were, none of them possessed those -qualities of mind which Mr. Miller has exhibited in his writings; and, -with the exception of Burns, the uneducated genius which has done honor -to Scotland during the last century, has never displayed that mental -refinement, and classical taste, and intellectual energy, which mark all -the writings of our author. We wish that we could have gratified our -readers with an authentic and even detailed narrative of the previous -history of so remarkable a writer, and of the steps by which his -knowledge was acquired, and the difficulties which he encountered in its -pursuit; but though this is not, to any great extent, in our power, we -shall at least be able, chiefly from Mr. Miller’s own writings, to follow -him throughout his geological career. - -Mr. Miller was born at Cromarty, of humble but respectable parents, whose -history would have possessed no inconsiderable interest, even if it had -not derived one of a higher kind from the genius and fortunes of their -child. By the paternal side he was descended from a race of sea-faring -people, whose family burying-ground, if we judge from the past, seems to -be the sea. Under its green waves his father sleeps: his grandfather, his -two granduncles, one of whom sailed round the world with Anson, lie also -there; and the same extensive cemetery contains the relics of several of -his more distant relatives. His father was but an infant of scarcely a -year old, at the death of our author’s grandfather, and had to commence -life as a poor ship-boy; but such was the energy of his mind, that, when -little turned of thirty, he had become the master and owner of a fine -large sloop, and had built himself a good house, which entitled his son -to the franchise on the passing of the Reform Bill. Having unfortunately -lost his sloop in a storm, he had to begin the world anew, and he soon -became master and owner of another, and would have thriven, had he lived; -but the hereditary fate was too strong for him, and when our author was a -little boy of five summers, his father’s fine new sloop foundered at sea -in a terrible tempest, and he and his crew were never more heard of. Mr. -Miller had two sisters younger than himself, both of whom died ere they -attained to womanhood. His mother experienced the usual difficulties -which a widow has to encounter in the decent education of her family; but -she struggled honestly and successfully, and ultimately found her reward -in the character and fame of her son. It is from this excellent woman -that Mr. Miller has inherited those sentiments and feelings which have -given energy to his talents as the defender of revealed truth, and the -champion of the Church of his fathers. She was the great granddaughter of -a venerable man, still well known to tradition in the north of Scotland -as Donald Roy of Nigg,—a sort of northern Peden, who is described in -the history of our Church as the single individual who, at the age of -eighty, when the presbytery of the district had assembled in the empty -church for the purpose of inducting an obnoxious presentee, had the -courage to protest against the intrusion, and to declare “that the blood -of the people of Nigg would be required at their hands, if they settled -a man _to the walls_ of that church.” Tradition has represented him as -a seer of visions, and a prophesier of prophecies; but whatever credit -may be given to stories of this kind, which have been told also of Knox, -Welsh, and Rutherford, this ancient champion of Non-Intrusion was a man -of genuine piety, and the savor of his ennobling beliefs and his strict -morals has survived in his family for generations. If the child of such -parents did not receive the best education which his native town could -afford, it was not their fault, nor that of his teacher. The fetters -of a gymnasium are not easily worn by the adventurous youth who has -sought and found his pleasures among the hills and on the waters. They -chafe the young and active limb that has grown vigorous under the blue -sky, and never known repose but at midnight. The young philosopher of -Cromarty was a member of this restless community; and he had been the -hero of adventures and accidents among rocks and woods, which are still -remembered in his native town. The parish school was therefore not the -scene of his enjoyments; and while he was a truant, and, with reverence -be it spoken, a dunce, while under its jurisdiction, he was busy in the -fields and on the sea-shore in collecting those stores of knowledge -which he was born to dispense among his fellow-men. He escaped, however, -from school, with the knowledge of reading, writing, and a little -arithmetic, and with the credit of uniting a great memory with a little -scholarship. Unlike his illustrious predecessor, Cuvier, he had studied -Natural History in the fields and among the mountains ere he had sought -for it in books; while the French philosopher had become a learned -naturalist before he had even looked upon the world of Nature. This -singular contrast is not difficult to explain. With a sickly constitution -and a delicate frame, the youthful Cuvier wanted that physical activity -which the observation of Nature demands. Our Scottish geologist, on the -contrary, in vigorous health, and with an iron frame, rushed to the rocks -and the sea-shore in search of the instruction which was not provided for -him at school, and which he could find no books to supply. - -After receiving this measure of education, Mr. Miller set out in -February, 1821, with a heavy heart, as he himself confesses, “to make his -first acquaintance with a life of labor and restraint:”— - - “I was but a slim, loose-jointed boy at the time, fond of the - pretty intangibilities of romance, and of dreaming when broad - awake; and woful change! I was now going to work at what Burns - has instanced in his ‘Twa Dogs’ as one of the most disagreeable - of all employments—to work in a quarry. Bating the passing - uneasiness occasioned by a few gloomy anticipations, the - portion of my life which had already gone by had been happy - beyond the common lot. I had been a wanderer among rocks and - woods,—a reader of curious books, when I could get them,—a - gleaner of old traditionary stories,—and now I was going to - exchange all my day-dreams and all my amusements for the kind - of life in which men toil every day that they may be enabled to - eat, and eat every day that they may be enabled to toil. The - quarry in which I wrought lay on the southern shore of a noble - inland bay, or frith, rather, (the Bay of Cromarty,) with a - little, clear stream on the one side, and a thick fir wood on - the other. It had been opened in the Old Red Sandstone of the - district, and was overtopped by a huge bank of diluvial clay, - and which rose over it in some places to the height of nearly - thirty feet.”—_Old Red Sandstone_, p. 4. - -After removing the loose fragments below, picks and wedges and levers -were applied in vain by our author and his brother workmen to tear up and -remove the huge strata beneath. Blasting by gunpowder became necessary. A -mass of the diluvial clay came tumbling down, “bearing with it two dead -birds, that in a recent storm had crept into one of the deeper fissures, -to die in the shelter.” While admiring the pretty cock goldfinch, and the -light-blue and grayish-yellow woodpecker, and moralizing on their fate, -the workmen were ordered to lay aside their tools, and thus ended the -first day’s labor of our young geologist. The sun was then sinking behind -the thick fir wood behind him, and the long dark shadows of the trees -stretching to the shore. Notwithstanding his blistered hands, and the -fatigue which blistered them, he found himself next morning as light of -heart as his fellow-laborers, and able to enjoy the magnificent scenery -around him, which he thus so beautifully describes:— - - “There had been a smart frost during the night, and the rime - lay white on the grass as we passed onwards through the fields; - but the sun rose in a clear atmosphere, and the day mellowed - as it advanced into one of those delightful days of early - spring which give so pleasing an earnest of whatever is mild - and genial in the better half of the year. All the workmen - rested at midday, and I went to enjoy my half hour alone on a - mossy knoll in the neighboring wood, which commands through the - trees a wide prospect of the bay and the opposite shore. There - was not a wrinkle on the water, nor a cloud in the sky; and - the branches were as moveless in the calm as if they had been - traced on canvas. From a wooded promontory that stretched half - way across the frith, there ascended a thin column of smoke. It - rose straight on the line of a plummet for more than a thousand - yards; and then, as reaching a thinner stratum of air, spread - out equally on every side, like the foliage of a stately tree. - Ben Wevis rose to the west, white with the yet unwasted snows - of winter, and as sharply defined in the clear atmosphere as - if all its sunny slopes and blue retiring hollows had been - chiselled in marble. A line of snow ran along the opposite - hills; all above was white, and all below was purple.”—_Old Red - Sandstone_, pp. 6, 7. - -In raising from its bed the large mass of strata which the gunpowder had -loosened, on the surface of the solid stone, our young quarrier descried -the ridged and furrowed ripple marks which the tide leaves upon every -sandy shore, and he wondered what had become of the waves that had thus -fretted the solid rock, and of what element they had been composed. His -admiration was equally excited by a circular depression in the sandstone, -“broken and flawed in every direction, as if it had been the bottom of a -pool recently dried up, which had shrunk and split in the hardening.” And -before the day closed, a series of large stones had rolled down from the -clay, “all rounded and water-worn, as if they had been tossed in the sea -or the bed of a river for hundreds of years.” Was the clay which enclosed -them created on the rock upon which it lay? No workman ever manufactures -a half-worn article!—were the ejaculations of the geologist at his -alphabet. - -Our author and his companions were soon removed to an easier wrought -quarry, and one more pregnant with interest, which had been opened “in -a lofty wall of cliffs that overhangs the northern shore of the Moray -Frith.” Here the geology of the district exhibited itself in section. - - “We see in one place the primary rock, with its veins of - granite and quartz,—its dizzy precipices of gneiss, and its - huge masses of hornblende; we find the secondary rock in - another, with its bed of sandstone and shale,—its spars, its - clays, and its nodular limestones. We discover the still little - known but highly interesting fossils of the Old Red Sandstone - in one deposition; we find the beautifully preserved shells and - lignites of the lias in another. There are the remains of two - several creations at once before us. The shore, too, is heaped - with rolled fragments of almost every variety of rock,—basalts, - ironstones, hypersthenes, porphyries, bituminous shales, and - micaceous schists. In short, the young geologist, had he all - Europe before him, could hardly choose for himself a better - field. I had, however, no one to tell me so at the time, for - geology had not yet travelled so far north; and so, without - guide or vocabulary, I had to grope my way as I best might, - and find out all its wonders for myself. But so slow was the - process, and so much was I a seeker in the dark, that the facts - contained in these few sentences were the patient gatherings of - years.”—_Old Red Sandstone_, pp. 9, 10. - -In this rich field of inquiry, our author encountered, almost daily, new -objects of wonder and instruction. In one nodular mass of limestone he -found the beautiful ammonite, like one of the finely sculptured volutes -of an Ionic capital. Within others, fish-scales and bivalve shells; -and in the centre of another he detected a piece of decayed wood. Upon -quitting the quarry for the building upon which the workmen were to be -employed, the workmen received half a holiday, and our young philosopher -devoted this valuable interval to search for certain curiously shaped -stones, which one of the quarriers told him resembled the heads of -boarding-pikes, and which, under the name of _thunder-bolts_, were held -to be a sovereign remedy for cattle that had been bewitched. On the -shore two miles off, where he expected these remarkable bodies, he found -deposits quite different either from the sandstone cliffs or the primary -rocks further to the west. They consisted of “thin strata of limestone, -alternating with thicker beds of a black slaty substance,” which burned -with a bright flame and a bituminous odor. Though only the eighth part -of an inch thick, each layer contained thousands of fossils peculiar to -the lias,—scallops and gryphites, ammonites, twigs and leaves of plants, -cones of pine, pieces of charcoal, and scales of fishes,—the impressions -being of a chalky whiteness, contrasting strikingly with their black -bituminous lair. Among these fragments of animal and vegetable life, he -at last detected his _thunder-bolt_ in the form of a Belemnite, the -remains of a kind of cuttle-fish long since extinct. - -In the exercise of his profession, which “was a wandering one,” our -author advanced steadily, though slowly and surely, in his geological -acquirements. - - “I remember,” says he, “passing direct on one occasion from the - wild western coast of Ross-shire, where the Old Red Sandstone - leans at a high angle against the prevailing quartz rock of - the district, to where, on the southern skirts of Mid-Lothian, - the mountain limestone rises amid the coal. I have resided - one season on a raised beach on the Moray Frith. I have spent - the season immediately following amid the ancient granites - and contorted schists of the central Highlands. In the north, - I have laid open by thousands the shells and lignites of the - Oolite; in the south, I have disinterred from their matrices - of stone or of shale the huge reeds and tree ferns of the - carboniferous period.... In the north, there occurs a vast gap - in the scale. The Lias leans unconformably against the Old Red - Sandstone; there is no mountain limestone, no coal measures, - none of the New Red Marls or Sandstones. There are at least - three entire systems omitted. But the upper portion of the - scale is well-nigh complete. In one locality we may pass from - the Lower to the Upper Lias, in another from the Inferior to - the Great Oolite, and onward to the Oxford Clay and the Coral - Rag. We may explore in a third locality beds identical in their - organisms with the Wealden of Sussex. In a fourth, we find the - flints and fossils of the chalk. The lower part of the scale - is also well-nigh complete. The Old Red Sandstone is amply - developed in Moray, Caithness, and Ross, and the Grauwacke very - extensively in Banffshire. But to acquaint one’s self with - the three missing formations,—to complete one’s knowledge of - the entire scale, by filling up the hiatus,—it is necessary - to remove to the south. The geology of the Lothians is the - geology of at least two thirds of the gap, and perhaps a little - more;—the geology of Arran wants only a few of the upper - beds of the New Red Sandstone to fill it entirely.”—_Old Red - Sandstone_, pp. 13-17. - -After having spent nearly fifteen years in the profession of a -stone-mason, Mr. Miller was promoted to a position more suited to his -genius. When a bank was established in his native town of Cromarty, he -received the appointment of accountant, and he was thus employed, for -five years, in keeping ledgers and discounting bills. When the contest in -the Church of Scotland had come to a close, by the decision of the House -of Lords in the Auchterurder Case, Mr. Miller’s celebrated letter to Lord -Brougham attracted the particular attention of the party which was about -to leave the Establishment, and he was selected as the most competent -person to conduct the _Witness_ newspaper, the principal metropolitan -organ of the Free Church. The great success which this journal has -met with is owing, doubtless, to the fine articles, political, -ecclesiastical, and geological, which Mr. Miller has written for it. In -the few leisure hours which so engrossing an occupation has allowed him -to enjoy, he has devoted himself to the ardent prosecution of scientific -inquiries; and we trust the time is not far distant when the liberality -of his country, to which he has done so much honor, will allow him to -give his whole time to the prosecution of science. - -Geologists of high character had believed that the Old Red Sandstone -was defective in organic remains; and it was not till after ten years’ -acquaintance with it that Mr. Miller discovered it to be _richly -fossiliferous_. The labors of other ten years were required to assign to -its fossils their exact place in the scale. - -Among the fossils discovered by our author, the _Pterichthys_ or winged -fish is doubtless the most remarkable. He had disinterred it so early as -1831, but it was only in 1838 that he “introduced it to the acquaintance -of geologists.” It was not till 1831 that Mr. Miller began to receive -assistance in his studies from without. In the appendix to Messrs. -Anderson of Inverness’s admirable _Guide to the Highlands and Islands of -Scotland_, which “he perused with intense interest,” he found the most -important information respecting the geology of the North of Scotland; -and during a correspondence with the accomplished authors of that work, -many of his views were developed, and his difficulties removed. In -1838, he communicated to Dr. Malcolmson of Madras, then in Paris, a -drawing and description of the _Pterichthys_. His letter was submitted -to Agassiz, and subsequently a restored drawing was communicated to the -Elgin Scientific Society. The great naturalist, as well as the members -of the provincial society, were surprised at the new form of life -which Mr. Miller had disclosed, and some of them, no doubt, regarded -it with a sceptical eye. “Not many months after, however, a true _bona -fide Pterichthys_ was turned up in one of the newly-discovered beds of -Nairnshire.” In his last visit to Scotland, Agassiz found six species of -the _Pterichthys_, three of which, and the wings of a fourth, were in Mr. -Miller’s collection. - -This remarkable animal has less resemblance than any other fossil of -the Old Red Sandstone to anything that now exists. When first brought -to view by the single blow of a hammer, there appeared on a ground of -light-colored limestone the effigy of a creature, fashioned apparently -out of jet, with a body covered with plates, two powerful looking arms -articulated at the shoulders, a head as entirely lost in the trunk as -that of the ray, (or skate,) and a long angular tail, equal in length to -a third of the entire figure. Its general resemblance is to the letter -T,—the upper part of the vertical line being swelled out, and the lower -part ending in an angular point, the two horizontal portions being, in -the opinion of Agassiz, organs of locomotion. To this remarkable fossil -M. Agassiz has given the appropriate name of _Pterichthys Milleri_. An -account of it, accompanied with two fine specimens, was communicated -to the Geological Section of the British Association at Glasgow, in -September, 1840; and the most ample details, with accurate drawings, -were afterwards published, in 1841, in Mr. Miller’s first work, _The Old -Red Sandstone_, which was dedicated to Sir Roderick Murchison, who was -born on the Old Red Sandstone of the North, in the same district as Mr. -Miller, and whose great acquirements and distinguished labors are known -all over the world among scientific men. This admirable work has already -passed through three editions. From the originality and accuracy of its -descriptions, and the importance of the researches which it contains, it -has obtained for its author a high reputation among geologists; while -from the elegance and purity of its style, and the force and liveliness -of its illustrations, it has received the highest praise from its more -general readers.[1] - -Although we have been obliged, from the information which it contains -of our author’s early studies, to mention the “Old Red Sandstone” as if -it had been his first work; yet so early as 1830, after he had made his -first fossil discoveries at Cromarty, he composed a paper on the subject, -(his first published production,) which appeared as one of the chapters -of a small legendary and descriptive work, entitled _The Traditional -History of Cromarty_, which did not appear till 1835. This chapter, -entitled “The Antiquary of the World,” possesses a high degree of -interest. After describing the scene around him in its pictorial aspect, -and under the warm associations, which link it with existing life, he -surveys it with the cool eye of an “antiquary of the world,” studying -its once buried monuments, and decyphering the alphabet of plants and -animals, the hieroglyphics which embosom the history of past times and -of successive creations. The gigantic Ben Wevis, with its attendant -hills, rose abruptly to the west. The distant peaks of Ben Vaichard -appeared in the south, and far to the north were descried the lofty -hills of Sutherland, and even the Ord-hill of Caithness. Descending from -the towers of nature’s lofty edifice he surveys its ruins, its broken -sculptures, and its half-defaced inscriptions, as exhibited in certain -Ichthyic remains of the Lower Old Red Sandstone which had then no name, -and which were unknown to the most accomplished geologists. Among these -he specially notices “a confused bituminous-looking mass that had much -the appearance of a toad or frog,” thus shadowing forth in the morning -twilight the curious _Pterichthys_, which he was able afterwards, in -better specimens, to exhibit in open day. As we have already referred, -with some minuteness, to the fossils which our author had at this time -discovered in the great charnel-house of the old world, we shall indulge -our readers with a specimen of the noble sentiments which they inspired, -and of the beautiful language in which these sentiments are clothed. - - “But let us quit this wonderful city of the dead, with all - its reclining obelisks, and all its sculptured tumuli, the - memorials of a race that exist only in their tombs. And yet, - ere we go, it were well, perhaps, to indulge in some of those - serious thoughts which we so naturally associate with the - solitary burying-ground and the mutilated remains of the - departed. Let us once more look around us, and say, whether, - of all men, the Geologist does not stand most in need of - the Bible, however much he may contemn it in the pride of - speculation. We tread on the remains of organized and sentient - creatures, which, though more numerous at one period than the - whole family of man, have long since ceased to exist; the - individuals perished one after one—their remains served only - to elevate the floor on which their descendants pursued the - various instincts of their nature, and then sunk, like the - others, to form a still higher layer of soil; and now that the - whole race has passed from the earth, and we see the animals - of a different tribe occupying their places, what survives of - them but a mass of inert and senseless matter, never again - to be animated by the mysterious spirit of vitality—that - spirit which, dissipated in the air, or diffused in the ocean, - can, like the sweet sounds and pleasant odors of the past, - be neither gathered up nor recalled! And O, how dark the - analogy which would lead us to anticipate a similar fate for - ourselves! As individuals, we are but as yesterday; to-morrow - we shall be laid in our graves, and the tread of the coming - generation shall be over our heads. Nay, have we not seen a - terrible disease sweep away, in a few years, more than eighty - millions of the race to which we belong; and can we think of - this and say that a time may not come when, like the fossils - of these beds our whole species shall be mingled with the - soil, and when, though the sun may look down in his strength - on our pleasant dwellings and our green fields, there shall be - silence in all our borders, and desolation in all our gates, - and we shall have no thought of that past which it is now our - delight to recall, and no portion in that future which it is - now our very nature to anticipate. Surely it is well to believe - that a widely different destiny awaits us—that the _God_ who - endowed us with those wonderful powers, which enable us to - live in every departed era, every coming period, has given us - to possess these powers forever; that not only does he number - the hairs of our heads, but that his cares are extended to - even our very remains; that our very bones, instead of being - left, like the exuviæ around us, to form the rocks and clays - of a future world, shall, like those in the valley of vision, - be again clothed with muscle and sinew, and that our bodies, - animated by the warmth and vigor of life, shall again connect - our souls to the matter existing around us, and be obedient to - every impulse of the will. It is surely no time, when we walk - amid the dark cemeteries of a departed world, and see the cold - blank shadows of the tombs falling drearily athwart the way—it - is surely no time to extinguish the light given us to shine so - fully and so cheerfully on our own proper path, merely because - its beams do not enlighten the recesses that yawn around us. - And O, what more unworthy of reasonable men than to reject - so consoling a revelation on no juster quarrel, than when it - unveils to us much of what could not otherwise be known, and - without the knowledge of which we could not be other than - unhappy, it leaves to the invigorating exercises of our own - powers whatever, in the wide circle of creation, lies fully - within their grasp!”—_The Antiquary of the World_, pp. 56-58. - -The next work published by Mr. Miller was entitled “_First Impressions -of England and its People_,”[2] a popular and interesting volume, which -has already gone through two editions, and which may be read with equal -interest by the geologist, the philanthropist, and the general reader. It -is full of knowledge and of anecdote, and is written in that attractive -style which commands the attention even of the most incurious readers. - -This delightful work, though only in _one_ volume, is equal to _three_ of -the ordinary type, and cannot fail to be perused with high gratification -by all classes of readers. It treats of every subject which is presented -to the notice of an accomplished traveller while he visits the great -cities and romantic localities of merry England. We know of no tour -in England written by a native in which so much pleasant reading and -substantial instruction are combined; and though we are occasionally -stopped in a very delightful locality by a precipice of the Old Red -Sandstone, or frightened by a disinterred skeleton, or sobered by the -burial-service over Palæozoic graves, we soon recover our equanimity, -and again enter upon the sunny path to which our author never fails to -restore us. - -Mr. Miller’s new work, the “_Footprints of the Creator_,” of which -we publish now another edition, authorized by the writer, is very -appropriately dedicated to Sir Philip Grey Egerton, Bart., M. P. for -Cheshire—a gentleman who possesses a magnificent collection of fossils, -and whose skill and acquirements in this department of geology is -known and appreciated both in Europe and America. The work itself is -divided into fifteen chapters, in which the author treats of the fossil -geology of the Orkneys, as exhibited in the vicinity of Stromness; of -the development hypothesis, and its consequences; of the history and -structure of that remarkable fish, the Asterolepis; of the fishes of the -Upper and Lower Silurian rocks; of the progress of degradation, and its -history; of the Lamarckian hypothesis of the origin of plants, and its -consequences; of the Marine and Terrestrial floras; and of final causes, -and their bearing on geological history. In the course of these chapters -Mr. Miller discusses the development hypothesis, or the hypothesis of -natural law, as maintained by Lamarck and by the author of the Vestiges -of Creation, and has subjected it, in its geological aspect, to the most -rigorous examination. Driven by the discoveries of Lord Rosse from the -domains of astronomy, where it once seemed to hold a plausible position, -it might have lingered with the appearance of life among the ambiguities -of the Palæozoic formations; but Mr. Miller has, with an ingenuity and -patience worthy of a better subject, stripped it even of its semblance -of truth, and restored to the Creator, as Governor of the universe, that -power and those functions which he was supposed to have resigned at its -birth. - -Having imposed upon himself the task of examining in detail the various -fossiliferous formations of Scotland, our author extended his inquiries -into the mainland of Orkney, and resided for some time in the vicinity -of the busy seaport town of Stromness, as a central point from which the -structure of the Orkney group of islands could be most advantageously -studied. Like that of Caithness, the geology of these islands owes its -principal interest to the immense development of the Lower Old Red -Sandstone formation, and to the singular abundance of its vertebrate -fossils. Though the Orkneys contain only the _third_ part of the Old -Red Sandstone, which, but a few years ago, was supposed to be the least -productive in fossils of any of the geological formations, yet it -furnishes, according to Mr. Miller, more fossil fish than _every_ other -geological system in England, Scotland, and Wales, from the Coal Measures -to the Chalk, inclusive. It is, in short, “_the land of fish_,” and -“could supply with ichthyolites, by the ton and by the ship-load, the -museums of the world.” Its various deposits, with the curious organisms -which they inclose, have been upheaved from their original position -against a granitic axis, about six miles long and one broad, “forming the -great back-bone of the western district of the Island Pomona; and on this -granitic axis, fast jambed in between a steep hill and the sea, stands -the town of Stromness.” - -The mass or pile of strata thus uplifted is described by Mr. Miller as a -three-barred pyramid resting on its granite base, exhibiting three broad -tiers—red, black, and gray—sculptured with the hieroglyphics in which -its history is recorded. The great conglomerate base on which it rests, -covering from 10,000 to 15,000 square miles, from the depth of from 100 -to 400 feet, consists of rough sand and water-worn pebbles; and above -this have been deposited successive strata of mud, equal in height to -the highest of our mountains, now containing the remains of millions and -tens of millions of fish which had perished in some sudden and mysterious -catastrophe. - -In the examination of the different beds of the three-barred formation, -our author discovered a well-marked bone, like a petrified large roofing -nail, in a grayish-colored layer of hard flag, about 100 yards over the -granite, and about 160 feet over the upper stratum of the conglomerate. -This singular bone, which Mr. Miller has represented in a figure, was -probably the oldest vertebrate organism yet discovered in Orkney. It was -5⅞ inches long, 2¼ inches across the head, and ³⁄₁₀ths of an inch thick -in the stem, and formed a characteristic feature of the Asterolepis, as -yet the most gigantic of the ganoid fishes, and probably one of the first -of the Old Red Sandstone. In his former researches, our author had found -that all of the many hundred ichthyolites which he had disinterred from -the Lower Old Red Sandstone were comparatively of a small size, while -those in the Upper Old Red were of great bulk; and hence he had naturally -inferred, that vertebrate life had increased towards the close of the -system—that, in short, it began with an age of dwarfs, and ended with an -age of giants; but he had thus greatly erred, like the supporters of the -development system, in founding positive conclusions on merely negative -evidence; for here, at the very base of the system, where no dwarfs were -to be found, he had discovered one of the most colossal of its giants. - -After this most important discovery, Mr. Miller extended his inquiries -easterly for several miles along the bare and unwooded Lake of Stennis, -about fourteen miles in circumference, and divided into an upper arm -lower sheet of water by two long promontories jutting out from each side -and nearly meeting in the middle. The sea enters this lake through the -openings of a long rustic bridge, and hence the lower division of the -lake “is salt in its nether reaches, and brackish in its upper ones; -while the higher division is merely brackish in its nether reaches, and -fresh enough in its upper ones to be potable.” The fauna and flora of -the lake are therefore of a mixed character, the marine and fresh water -animals having each their own reaches, though each kind makes certain -encroachments on the province of the other. - -In the marine and lacustrine floras of the lake, Mr. Miller observed -changes still more palpable. At the entrance of the sea, the _Fucus -nodosus_ and _Fucus vesiculosus_ flourish in their proper form and -magnitude. A little farther on in the lake, the F. nodosus disappears, -and the F. vesiculosus, though continuing to exist for mile after mile, -grows dwarfish and stunted, and finally disappears, giving place to -rushes and other aquatic grasses, till the lacustrine has entirely -displaced the marine flora. From these two important facts, the existence -of the fragment of _Asterolepis_ in the lower flagstones of the Orkneys, -and of the “curiously mixed semi-marine semi-lacustrine vegetation in the -Loch of Stennis,” which our author regards as bearing directly on the -development hypothesis, he takes occasion to submit that hypothesis to a -severe examination, and to point out its consequences—its incompatibility -with the great truths of morality and revealed religion. According -to Professor Oken, one of the ablest supporters of the development -theory, “There are two kinds of generation in the world, the creation -proper, and the propagation that is sequent thereon, or the _original -and secondary generation_. Consequently, no organism has been created -of larger size than an infusorial point. No organism is, or ever has -been created, which is not microscopic. Whatever is large has not been -created, but developed. Man has not been created, but developed.” Hence -it follows that during the great geological period, when race after race -was destroyed, and new forms of life called into being, “nature had been -pregnant with the human race,” and that immortal and intellectual Man is -but the development of the Brute—itself the development of some monad or -mollusc, which has been smitten into life by the action of electricity -upon a portion of gelatinous matter. - -If the development theory be true, “the early fossils ought to be very -small in size,” and “very low in organization.” In the earliest strata we -ought to find only “mere _embryos_ and _fœtuses_; and if we find instead -the _full-grown_ and _mature_, then must we hold that the testimony of -geology is not only _not in accordance_ with the theory, but in positive -opposition to it.” Having laid this down as the _principle_ by which -the question is to be decided, our author proceeds to consider “what -are the _facts_.” The _Asterolepis_ of Stromness _seems_ to be the -oldest organism yet discovered in the most ancient geological system of -Scotland, in which vertebrate remains occur. It is probably the oldest -Cœlacanth that the world has yet produced, for there is no certain trace -of this family in the great Silurian system, which lies underneath, and -on which, according to our existing knowledge, organic existence first -began. “How, then,” asks Mr. Miller, “on the two relevant points—bulk and -organization—does it answer to the demands of the development hypothesis? -Was it a mere fœtus of the finny tribe, of minute size and imperfect -embryonic faculty? Or was it of, at least, the ordinary bulk, and, for -its class, of the average organization?” - -In order to answer these questions, Mr. Miller proceeds in his _third_ -chapter to give the recent history of the Asterolepis; in his _fourth_, -to ascertain the cerebral development of the earlier vertebrata; and in -his _fifth_ chapter to describe the structure, bulk, and aspect of the -Asterolepis. In the rocks of Russia certain fossil remains had been long -ago discovered, of such a singular nature as to have perplexed Lamarck -and other naturalists. Their true place among fishes was subsequently -ascertained by M. Eichwald, a living naturalist; and Sir Roderick -Murchison found that they were Ichthyolites of the Old Red Sandstone. -Agassiz gave them the name of _Chelonichthys_; but in consequence of very -fine specimens having been found in the Old Red Sandstone of Russia, -which Professor Asmus of Dorpat sent to the British Museum, and which -exhibited star-like markings, he abandoned his name of _Chelonichthys_, -and adopted that of _Asterolepis_, or star-scale, which Eichwald had -proposed. Many points, however, respecting this curious fossil remained -to be determined, and it was fortunate for science that Mr. Miller was -enabled to accomplish this object by means of a variety of excellent -specimens which he received from Mr. Robert Dick, “an intelligent -tradesman of Thurso, one of those working men of Scotland, of active -curiosity and well developed intellect, that give character and standing -to the rest.” Agassiz had inferred, from very imperfect fragments, that -the _Asterolepis_ was a strongly-helmed fish of the _Cœlacanths_, or -hollow spine family—that it was probably a flat-headed animal, and that -the discovery of a head or of a jaw might prove that the genus Dendrodus -did not differ from it. All these conjectures were completely confirmed -by Mr. Miller, after a careful examination of the specimens of Mr. Dick. - -Before proceeding to describe the structure of the gigantic Asterolepis, -Mr. Miller devotes a long and elaborate chapter to the subject of the -cerebral development of the earlier vertebrata, in order to ascertain -in what manner their true brains were lodged, and to discover the -modification which the cranium, as their protecting box, received in -subsequent periods. This inquiry, which he has conducted with great skill -and ability, is not only highly interesting in itself, but will be found -to have a direct bearing on the great question which it is his object to -discuss and decide. - -The facts and reasonings contained in this chapter will, we doubt not, -shake to its very base the bold theory of Professor Oken, which has been -so generally received abroad, and which is beginning to find supporters -even among the solid thinkers of our own country. In the _Isis_ of 1818, -Professor Lorenz Oken has given the following account of the hypothesis -to which we allude. “In August, 1806,” says he, “I made a journey over -the Hartz. I slid down through the wood on the south side, and straight -before me, at my very feet, lay a most beautiful blanched skull of -a hind. I picked it up, turned it round, regarded it intensely;—the -thing was done. ‘It is a vertebral column,’ struck me like a flood of -lightning, ‘to the marrow and bone;’ and since that time the skull has -been regarded as a vertebral column.” - -This remarkable hypothesis was at first received with enthusiasm by the -naturalists of Germany, and, among others, by Agassiz, who, from grounds -not of a geological kind, has more recently rejected it. It has been -adopted by our distinguished countryman, Professor Owen, and forms the -central idea in his lately published and ingenious work “On the Nature -of Limbs.” The conclusion at which he arrives, that the fore-limbs of -the vertebrata are the ribs of the occipital bone or vertebra set free, -and (in all the vertebrata higher in the scale than the ordinary fishes) -carried down along the vertebral column by a sort of natural dislocation, -is a deduction from the idea that startled Professor Oken in the forest -of the Hartz. Whatever support this hypothesis might have expected from -Geology, has been struck from beneath it by this remarkable chapter of -Mr. Miller’s work; and though anatomists may for a while maintain it -under the influence of so high an authority as Professor Owen, we are -much mistaken if it ever forms a part of the creed of the geologist. -Mr. Miller indeed has, by a most skilful examination of the heads of -the earliest vertebrata known to geologists, proved that the hypothesis -derives no support from the structure which they exhibit, and Agassiz has -even upon general principles rejected it as untenable. - -Mr. Miller’s next chapter on the structure, bulk, and aspect of the -Asterolepis, is, like that which precedes it, the work of a master, -evincing the highest powers of observation and analysis. Its size in the -larger specimens must have been very great; and from a comparison of the -proportion of the head in the Ganoids to the length of the body, which -is sometimes as one to five, or one to six, or one to six and a half, -or even one to seven, our author concludes that the total length of the -specimens in his possession must have been at least eight feet three -inches, or from nine feet nine to nine feet ten inches. The remains of an -Asterolepis found by Mr. Dick at Thurso, indicate a length of from twelve -feet five to thirteen feet eight inches; and one of the Russian specimens -of Professor Asmus must have been from _eighteen_ to _twenty-three_ feet -long. “Hence,” says Mr. Miller, “in the not unimportant circumstance -of size—the most ancient Cœlacanths yet known, instead of taking their -places agreeably to the demands of the development hypothesis among the -sprats, sticklebacks, and minnows of their class, took their place among -its huge basking sharks, gigantic sturgeons, and bulky swordfishes. -They were giants, not dwarfs.” Again, judging by the analogies which -its structure exhibits to that of fishes of the existing period, the -Asterolepis must have been a fish high in the scale of organization. - -A specimen of Asterolepis, discovered by Mr. Dick, among the Thurso -rocks, and sent to Mr. Miller, exhibited the singular phenomenon of a -quantity of thick tar lying beneath it, which stuck to the fingers when -lifting the pieces of rock. “What had been once the nerves, muscles, and -blood of this ancient Ganoid, still lay under its bones,” a phenomenon -which our author had previously seen beneath the body of a poor suicide, -whose grave in a sandy bank had been laid open by the encroachments of a -river, the sand beneath it having been “consolidated into a dark colored -pitchy mass,” extending a full yard beneath the body. In like manner, -the animal juices of the Asterolepis had preserved its remains, by “the -pervading bitumen, greatly more conservative in its effects than the oil -and gum of an old Egyptian undertaker.” The bones, though black as pitch -retained to a considerable degree the peculiar qualities of the original -substance, in the same manner as the adipocire of wet burying-grounds -preserves fresh and green the bones which it encloses. - -In support of his anti-development views, Mr. Miller devotes his next and -_sixth_ chapter to the recent history, order, and size of the fishes of -the Upper and Lower Silurian rocks. Of these ancient formations, the bone -bed of the Upper Ludlow rocks is the only one which, besides defensive -spines of fish, contains teeth, fragments of jaws, and shagreen points, -whereas, in the inferior deposits, defensive spates alone are found. The -species discovered by Professor Phillips, in the Wenlock shale, were -microscopic; and the author of the _Vestiges_ took advantage of this -insulated fact to support his views, by pronouncing the little creatures -to which the species belonged as the fœtal embryos of their class. Mr. -Miller has, however, even on this ground, defeated his opponent. By -comparing the defensive spines of the _Onchus Murchisoni_ of the Upper -Ludlow bed with those of a recent _Spinax Acanthias_, or dog-fish, and -of the _Cestracion Phillippi_, or Port Jackson shark, he arrives at the -conclusion, that the fishes to which the species belonged must be all of -considerable size; and in the following chapter _on the high standing -of the Placoids_ he shews that the same early fishes were high in -intelligence and organization. - -In his _ninth_ chapter on the _History and Progress of Degradation_, -our author enters upon a new and interesting subject. The object of -it is to determine the proper ground on which the standing of the -earlier vertebrata should be decided, namely, the test of what he terms -homological symmetry of organization. In nature there are monster -families, just as there are in families monster individuals—men without -feet, hands, or eyes, or with them in a wrong place—sheep with legs -growing from their necks, ducklings with wings on their haunches, and -dogs and cats with more legs than they require. We have thus, according -to our author—1, _monstrosity through defect of parts_; 2, _monstrosity -through redundancy of parts_; and 3, _monstrosity through displacement of -parts_. This last species, united in some cases with the other two, our -author finds curiously exemplified in the geological history of the fish, -which he considers better known than that of any other division of the -vertebrata; and he is convinced that it is from a survey of the progress -of degradation in the great Ichthyic division that the standing of the -kingly fishes of the earlier periods is to be determined. - -In the earliest vertebrate period, namely, the Silurian, our author -shews that the fishes were homologically symmetrical in their -organization, as exhibited in the Placoids. In the second great Ichthyic -period, that of the Old Red Sandstone, he finds the first example in -the class of fishes of _monstrosity, by displacement of parts_. In all -the Ganoids of the period, there is the same departure from symmetry -as would take place in man if his neck was annihilated, and the arms -stuck to the back of the head. In the _Coccosteus_ and _Pterichthys_ -of the same period, he finds the first example of _degradation through -defect_, the former resembling a human monster without hands, and the -latter one without feet. After ages and centuries have passed away, -and then after the termination of the Palæozoic period, a change takes -place in the formation of the fish tail. “Other ages and centuries pass -away, during which the reptile class attains to its fullest development -in point of size, organization, and number; and then, after the times -of the cretaceous deposits have begun, we find yet another remarkable -monstrosity of displacement introduced among all the fishes of one very -numerous order, and among no inconsiderable proportion of the fishes -of another. In the newly-introduced Ctenoids (_Acanthopterygii_,) and -in those families of the Cycloids which Cuvier erected into the order -_Malacopterygii sub-brachiati_, the hinder limbs are brought forward and -stuck on to the base of the previously misplaced fore limbs. All the -four limbs, by a strange monstrosity of displacement, are crowded into -the place of the extinguished neck. And such, in the present day, is the -prevalent type among fishes. Monstrosity through _defect_ is also found -to increase; so that the snake-like _apoda_, or feet-wanting fishes, -form a numerous order, some of whose genera are devoid, as in the common -eels and the congers, of only the hinder limbs, while in others, as in -the genera _Muræna_ and _Synbranchus_, both hinder and fore-limbs are -wanting.” From these and other facts, our author concludes that as in -existing fishes we find many more proofs of the monstrosity, both from -displacement and defect of parts, than in all the other three classes -of the vertebrata, and as these monstrosities did not appear early, but -late, “the progress of the race as a whole, though it still retains -not a few of the higher forms, has been a progress not of development -from the low to the high, but of degradation from the high to the low.” -An extreme example of the degradation of distortion, superadded to -that of displacement, may be seen in the flounder, plaice, halibut, or -turbot,—fishes of a family of which there is no trace in the earlier -periods. The creature is twisted half round and laid on its side. The -tail, too, is horizontal. Half the features of its head are twisted to -one side, and the other half to the other, while its wry mouth is in -keeping with its squint eyes. One jaw is straight, and the other like -a bow; and while one contains from _four_ to _six_ teeth, the other -contains from _thirty_ to _thirty-five_. - -Aided by facts like these, an ingenious theorist might, as our author -remarks, “get up as unexceptionable a theory of degradation as of -development.” But however this may be, the principle of degradation -actually exists, and “the history of its progress in creation bears -directly against the assumption that the earlier vertebrata were of a -lower type than the vertebrata of the same Ichthyic class which exist -now.” - -In his next and _tenth_ chapter, our author controverts with his usual -power the argument in favor of the development hypothesis, drawn from -the predominance of the Brachiopods among the Silurian Molluscs. The -existence of the highly organized Cephalopods, in the same formation, -not only neutralizes this argument, but authorizes the conclusion that -an animal of a very high order of organization existed in the earliest -formation. It is of no consequence whether the Cephalopods, or the -Brachiopods were most numerous. Had there been only one cuttle fish in -the Silurian seas, and a million of Brachiopods, the fact would equally -have overturned the development system. - -In the same chapter, Mr. Miller treats of the geological history of -the Fossil flora, which has been pressed into the service of the -development hypothesis. On the authority of Adolphe Brongniart, it was -maintained that, previous to the age of the Lias, “Nature had failed to -achieve a tree—and that the rich vegetation of the Coal Measures had -been exclusively composed of magnificent immaturities of the vegetable -kingdom, of gigantic ferns and club mosses, that attained to the size -of forest trees, and of thickets of the swamp-loving horse-tail family -of plants.” True exogenous trees, however, do exist of vast size, and -in great numbers, in all the coal-fields of our own country, as has -been proved by Mr. Miller. Nay, he himself discovered in the Old Red -Sandstone, _Lignite_, which is proved to have formed part of a true -gymnospermous tree, represented by the pines of Europe and America, or -more probably, as Mr. Miller believes, by the Araucarians of Chili and -New Zealand. This important discovery is pregnant with instruction. The -ancient Conifer must have waved its green foliage over dry land, and it -is not probable that it was the only tree in the primeval forest. “The -ship carpenter,” as our author observes, “might have hopefully taken -axe in hand to explore the woods for some such stately pine as the one -described by Milton,— - - ‘Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast - Of some great admiral.’” - -Viewing this _olive leaf_ of the Old Red Sandstone as not at all devoid -of poetry, our author invites us to a voyage from the latest formation up -to the first zone of the Silurian formation,—thus passing from ancient to -still more ancient scenes of being, and finding, as at the commencement -of our voyage, a graceful intermixture of land and water, continent, -river, and sea. - -But though the existence of a true Placoid, a real vertebrated fish, in -the Cambrian limestone of Bala, and of true wood at the base of the Old -Red Sandstone, are utterly incompatible with the development hypothesis, -its supporters, thus driven to the wall, may take shelter under the -vague and unquestioned truth that the lower plants and animals preceded -the higher, and that the order of creation was fish, reptiles, birds, -mammalia, quadrumana, and man. From this resource, too, our author -has cut off his opponents, and proceeds to show that such an order of -creation, “at once wonderful and beautiful,” does not afford even the -slightest presumption in favor of the hypothesis which it is adduced to -support. - -This argument is carried on in a popular and amusing dialogue in the -_eleventh_ chapter. Mr. Miller shows, in the clearest manner, that -“superposition is not parental relation,” or that an organism lying -above another gives us no ground for believing that the lower organism -was the parent of the higher. The theorist, however, looks only at those -phases of truth which are in unison with his own views; and, when truth -presents no such favorable aspect, he finally wraps himself up in the -folds of ignorance and ambiguity—the winding-sheet of error refuted -and exposed. We have not yet penetrated, says he, in feeble accents, -to the formations which represent the dawn of being, and the simplest -organism may yet be detected beneath the lowest fossiliferous rocks. -This undoubtedly _may be_, and Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Leonard Horner -are of opinion that such rocks may yet be discovered; while Sir Roderick -Murchison and Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Miller are of an opposite -opinion. But even were such rocks discovered to-morrow, it would not -follow that their organisms gave the least support to the development -hypothesis. In the year 1837, when fishes were not discovered in the -Upper Silurian rocks, the theorist would have rightly predicted the -existence of lower fossiliferous beds; but when they are discovered, and -their fossils examined, they furnish the strongest argument that could -be desired against the theory they were expected to sustain. This fact, -no doubt, is so far in favor of the supposition that there may be still -lower fossil-bearing strata; but, as Mr. Miller observes, “The pyramid of -organized existence, as it ascends into the by-past eternity, inclines -sensibly towards its apex,—that apex of ‘_beginning_’ on which, on far -other than geological grounds, it is our privilege to believe. The broad -base of the superstructure planted on the existing scene stretches across -the entire scale on life, animal and vegetable; but it contracts as it -rises into the past;—man,—the quadrumana,—the quadrupedal man,—the bird -and the reptile are each in succession struck from off its breadth, till -we at length see it with the vertebrata, represented by only the fish, -narrowing as it were to a point; and though the clouds of the upper -region may hide its apex, we infer, from the declination of its sides, -that it cannot penetrate much farther into the profound.” - -In our author’s next chapter, the _twelfth_ of the series, he proceeds -to examine the “Lamarckian hypothesis of the origin of plants, and its -consequences.” - -In his _thirteenth_ chapter, on “The two Floras, marine and terrestrial,” -he has shown that all our experience is opposed to the opinion, that the -one has been transmuted into the other. If the marine had been converted -into terrestrial vegetation, we ought to have, in the Lake of Stennis, -for example, plants of an intermediate character between the algæ of the -sea, and the monocotyledons of the lake. But no such transition-plants -are found. The algæ, as our author observes, become dwarfish and -ill-developed. They cease to exist as the water becomes fresher, “until -at length we find, instead of the brown, rootless, flowerless fucoids and -confervæ of the ocean, the green, rooted, flowering flags, rushes, and -aquatic grasses of the fresh water. Many thousands of years have failed -to originate a single intermediate plant.” The same conclusion may be -drawn from the character of the vegetation along the extensive shores of -Britain and Ireland. No botanist has ever found a single plant in the -transition state. - -The _fourteenth_ chapter of the “Footprints” will be perused with great -interest by the general reader. It is a powerful and argumentative -exposure of the development hypothesis, and of the manner in which the -subject has been treated in the “Vestiges.” Whether we consider it in -its nature, in its history, or in the character of the intellects with -whom it originated, or by whom it has been received and supported, Mr. -Miller has shown that it has nothing to recommend it. It existed as a -wild dream before Geology had any being as a science. It was broached -more than a century ago by De Maillet, who knew nothing of the geology -even of his day. In a translation of his Telhamed, published in 1750, -Mr. Miller finds very nearly the same account given of the origin of -plants and animals, as that in the “Vestiges,” and in which the sea -is described as that “great and fruitful womb of nature, in which -organization and life first begin.” Lamarck, though a skilful botanist -and conchologist, was unacquainted with geology; and as he first -published his development hypothesis in 1802, (an hypothesis identical -with that of the “Vestiges,”) it is probable that he was not then a very -skilful zoologist. Nor has Professor Oken any higher claims to geological -acquirements. He confesses that he wrote the first edition of his work -in _a kind of inspiration!_ and it is not difficult to estimate the -intelligence of the inspiring idol that announced to the German sage that -the globe was a vast crystal, a little flawed in the facets, and that -quartz, feldspar, and mica, the three constituents of granite, were the -hail-drops of heavy showers of stone that fell into the original ocean, -and accumulated into rocks at the bottom! - -Such is the unscientific parentage of the theories promulgated in the -“Vestiges.” But the author of this work appeals in the first instance to -science. Astronomy, Geology, Botany, and Zoology are called upon to give -evidence in his favor; but the astronomer, geologist, botanist, and the -zoologist, all refuse him their testimony, deny his premises, and reject -his results. “It is not,” as Mr. Miller happily observes, “the illiberal -religionist that casts him off. It is the inductive philosopher.” Science -addresses him in the language of the possessed: “The astronomer I know, -and the geologist I know; but who are ye?” Thus left alone in a cloud -of star-dust, or in brackish water between the marine and terrestrial -flora, he “appeals from science to the want of it,” casts a stone at -our Scientific Institutions, and demands a jury of “ordinary readers,” -as the only “tribunal” by which “the new philosophy is to be truly and -righteously judged.” - -The last and _fifteenth_ chapter of Mr. Miller’s work, “On the Bearing -of Final Causes on Geologic History,” if read with care and thought, -will prove at once delightful and instructive. The principle of _final -causes_, or the conditions of existence, affords a wide scope to our -reason in Natural History, but especially in Geology. It becomes an -interesting inquiry, if any reason can be assigned why at certain periods -species began to exist, and became extinct after the lapse of lengthened -periods of time, and why the higher classes of being succeeded the lower -in the order of creation? The incompleteness of geological science, -however, does not permit us to remove, for the present, the veil which -hangs over this mysterious chronology; but our author is of opinion that -in about a quarter of a century, in a favored locality like the British -Islands, geological history “will assume a very extraordinary form.” - -It is a singular fact, which will yet lead to singular results, that -Cuvier’s arrangement of the four classes of vertebrate animals should -exhibit the same order as that in which they are found in the strata of -the earth. In the _fish_, the average proportion of the brain to the -spinal cord is only as 2 to 1. In the _reptile_, the ratio is 2½ to 1. -In the _bird_, it is as 3 to 1. In the _mammalia_, it is as 4 to 1; and -in _man_, it is as 23 to 1. No less remarkable is the fœtal progress of -the human brain. It first becomes a brain resembling that of a fish; then -it grows into the form of that of a reptile; then into that of a bird; -then into that of a mammiferous quadruped, and finally it assumes the -form of a human brain, “thus comprising in its fœtal progress an epitome -of geological history, as if man were in himself a compendium of all -animated nature, and of kin to every creature that lives.” - -With these considerations, Mr. Miller has brought his subject to the -point at which Science in its onward progress now stands. It is to -embryology we are in future to look for further information upon the -most intimate relations which exist between all organized beings. We may -fairly entertain the hope that the time is not far when we shall not -only fully understand the Plan of Creation, but even lift some corner -of the veil which has hitherto prevented us from forming adequate ideas -of the first introduction of animal and vegetable life upon earth, and -of the changes which both kingdoms have undergone in the succession of -geological ages. - - L. AGASSIZ. - -CAMBRIDGE, _September, 1850_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS.—THE LAKE OF STENNIS 21 - - THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 37 - - THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS FAMILY 48 - - CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA.—ITS - APPARENT PRINCIPLE 62 - - THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT 94 - - FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS, UPPER AND LOWER.—THEIR RECENT - HISTORY, ORDER, AND SIZE 130 - - HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 147 - - THE PLACOID BRAIN.—EMBRYONIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY - OF A LOW ORDER 160 - - THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION.—ITS HISTORY 181 - - EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT - TREE 205 - - SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION.—THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE 230 - - LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES 243 - - THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL.—BEARING OF THE - EXPERIENCE ARGUMENT 262 - - THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYONIC STATE.—OLDER THAN - ITS ALLEGED FOUNDATIONS 277 - - FINAL CAUSES—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY—CONCLUSION 303 - - - - -LIST OF WOOD-CUTS - - - PAGE - - 1. Internal ridge of hyoid plate of _Asterolepis_ 31 - - 2. Shagreen of _Raja clavata_:—of _Sphagodus_ 54 - - 3. Scales of _Acanthodes sulcatus_:—shagreen of _Scyllium - stellare_ 55 - - 4. Scales of _Cheiracanthus microlepidotus_:—shagreen of - _Spinax Acanthias_ 56 - - 5. Section of shagreen of _Scyllium stellare_:—of scales of - _Cheiracanthus microlepidotus_ 56 - - 6. Scales of _Osteolepis microlepidotus_:—of an undescribed - species of _Glyptolepis_ 57 - - 7. Osseous points Of Placoid Cranium 65 - - 8. Osseous centrum of _Spinax Acanthias_:—of _Raja clavata_ 67 - - 9. Portions of caudal fin of _Cheiracanthus_:—of _Cheirolepis_ 69 - - 10. Upper surface of cranium of Cod 72 - - 11. Cranial buckler of _Coccosteus_ 74 - - 12. Cranial buckler of _Osteolepis_ 75 - - 13. Upper surface of head of _Osteolepis_ 77 - - 14. Under surface of head of _Osteolepis_ 79 - - 15. Head of _Osteolepis_, seen in profile 80 - - 16. Cranial buckler of _Diplopterus_ 81 - - 17. Ditto 82 - - 18. Palatal dart-head, and group of palatal teeth, of _Dipterus_ 83 - - 19. Cranial buckler of _Dipterus_ 85 - - 20. Base of cranium of _Dipterus_ 86 - - 21. Under jaw of _Dipterus_ 87 - - 22. Longitudinal section of head of _Dipterus_ 88 - - 23. Section of vertebral centrum of Thornback 92 - - 24. Dermal tubercles of _Asterolepis_ 95 - - 25. Scales of _Asterolepis_ 96 - - 26. Portion of carved surface of scale 96 - - 27. Cranial buckler of _Asterolepis_ 98 - - 28. Inner surface of cranial buckler of _Asterolepis_ 99 - - 29. Plates of cranial buckler of _Asterolepis_ 102 - - 30. Portion of under jaw of _Asterolepis_ 103 - - 31. Inner side of portion of under jaw of _Asterolepis_ 104 - - 32. Portion of transverse section of reptile tooth of - _Asterolepis_ 105 - - 33. Section of jaw of _Asterolepis_ 106 - - 34. Maxillary bone? 108 - - 35. Inner surface of operculum of _Asterolepis_ 109 - - 36. Hyoid plate 110 - - 37. Nail-like bone of hyoid plate 111 - - 38. Shoulder plate of _Asterolepis_ 112 - - 39. Dermal bones of _Asterolepis_ 113 - - 40. Internal bones of _Asterolepis_ 114 - - 41. Ditto 115 - - 42. Ischium of _Asterolepis_ 116 - - 43. Joint of ray of Thornback:—of _Asterolepis_ 117 - - 44. Coprolites of _Asterolepis_ 118 - - 45. Hyoid plate of Thurso _Asterolepis_ 124 - - 46. Hyoid plate of Russian _Asterolepis_ 127 - - 47. Spine of _Spinax Acanthias_:—fragment of Onondago spine 143 - - 48. Tail of _Spinax Acanthius_:—of _Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris_ 172 - - 49. Port Jackson Shark (_Cestracion Phillippi_) 177 - - 50. Tail of _Osteolepis_ 195 - - 51. Tail of _Lepidosteus osseus_ 196 - - 52. Tail of Perch 197 - - 53. _Altingia excelsa_ (Norfolk-Island Pine) 212 - - 54. Fucoids of the Lower Old Red Sandstone 216 - - 55. Two species of Old Red Fucoids 217 - - 56. Fern (?) of the Lower Old Red Sandstone 219 - - 57. Lignite of the Lower Old Red Sandstone 221 - - 58. Internal structure of lignite of Lower Old Red Sandstone 223 - - - - -STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS. THE LAKE OF STENNIS. - - -When engaged in prosecuting the self-imposed task of examining in detail -the various fossiliferous deposits of Scotland, in the hope of ultimately -acquainting myself with them all, I extended my exploratory ramble, about -two years ago, into the Mainland of Orkney, and resided for some time in -the vicinity of Stromness. - -This busy seaport town forms that special centre, in this northern -archipelago, from which the structure of the entire group can be most -advantageously studied. The geology of the Orkneys, like that of -Caithness, owes its chief interest to the immense development which -it exhibits of one formation,—the Lower Old Red Sandstone,—and to the -extraordinary abundance of its vertebrate remains. It is not too much -to affirm, that in the comparatively small portion which this cluster -of islands contains of the _third_ part of a system regarded only a -few years ago as the least fossiliferous in the geologic scale, there -are more fossil fish enclosed than in _every_ other geologic system -in England, Scotland, and Wales, from the Coal Measures to the Chalk -inclusive. Orkney is emphatically, to the geologist, what a juvenile -Shetland poetess designates her country, in challenging for it a standing -independent of the “Land of Cakes,”—a “Land of Fish;” and, were the trade -once fairly opened up, could supply with ichthyolites, by the ton and the -ship-load, the museums of the world. Its various deposits, with all their -strange organisms, have been uptilted from the bottom against a granitic -axis, rather more than six miles in length by about a mile in breadth, -which forms the great back-bone of the western district of Pomona; and on -this granitic axis—fast jammed in between a steep hill and the sea—stands -the town of Stromness. Situated thus _at the bottom_ of the upturned -deposits of the island, it occupies exactly such a point of observation -as that which the curious eastern traveller would select, in front of -some huge pyramid or hieroglyphic-covered obelisk, as a proper site for -his tent. It presents, besides, not a few facilities for studying with -the geological phenomena, various interesting points in physical science -of a cognate character. Resting on its granitic base, _in front_ of -the strangely sculptured pyramid of three broad tiers,—red, black, and -gray,—which the Old Red Sandstone of these islands may be regarded as -forming, it is but a short half mile from the Great Conglomerate base -of the formation, and scarcely a quarter of a mile more from the older -beds of its central flagstone deposit; while an hour’s sail on the one -hand opens to the explorer the overlying arenaceous deposit of Hoy, and -an hour’s walk on the other introduces him to the Loch of Stennis, with -its curiously mixed flora and fauna. But of the Loch of Stennis and its -productions more anon. - -The day was far spent when I reached Stromness: but as I had a fine -bright evening still before me, longer by some three or four degrees of -north latitude than the midsummer evenings of the south of Scotland, -I set out, hammer in hand, to examine the junction of the granite and -the Great Conglomerate, where it has been laid bare by the sea along -the low promontory which forms the western boundary of the harbor. The -granite here is a ternary of the usual components, somewhat intermediate -in grain and color between the granites of Peterhead and Aberdeen; -and the conglomerate consists of materials almost exclusively derived -from it,—evidence enough of itself, that when this ancient mechanical -deposit was in course of forming, the granite—exactly such a compound -then as it is now—was one of the surface rocks of the locality, and -much exposed to disintegrating influences. This conglomerate base of -the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland—which presents, over an area -of many thousand square miles, such an identity of character, that -specimens taken from the neighborhood of Lerwick, in Shetland, or of -Gamrie, in Banff, can scarce be distinguished from specimens detached -from the hills which rise over the Great Caledonian Valley, or from the -cliffs immediately in front of the village of Contin—seems to have been -formed in a vast oceanic basin of primary rock,—a Palæozoic Hudson’s or -Baffin’s Bay,—partially surrounded, mayhap, by primary continents, swept -by numerous streams, rapid and headlong, and charged with the broken -debris of the inhospitable regions which they drained. The graptolite -bearing grauwacke of Banffshire seems to have been the only fossiliferous -rock that occurred throughout the entire extent of this ancient northern -basin; and its few organisms now serve to open the sole vista through -which the geological explorer to the north of the Grampians can catch a -glimpse of an earlier period of existence than that represented by the -ichthyolites of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. - -Very many ages must have passed ere, amid waves and currents, the -water-worn debris which now forms the Great Conglomerate could have -accumulated over tracts of sea-bottom from ten to fifteen thousand -square miles in area, to its present depth of from one to four hundred -feet. At length, however, a thorough change took place; but we can only -doubtfully speculate regarding its nature or cause. The bottom of the -Palæozoic basin became greatly less exposed. Some protecting circle of -coast had been thrown up around it; or, what is perhaps more probable, -it had sunk to a profounder depth, and the ancient shores and streams -had receded, through the depression, to much greater distances. And, in -consequence, the deposition of rough sand and rolled pebbles was followed -by a deposition of mud. Myriads of fish, of forms the most ancient -and obsolete, congregated on its banks or sheltered in its hollows; -generation succeeded generation, millions and tens of millions perished -mysteriously by sudden death; shoals after shoals were annihilated; but -the productive powers of nature were strong, and the waste was kept -up. But who among men shall reckon the years or centuries during which -these races existed, and this muddy ocean of the remote past spread out -to unknown and nameless shores around them? As in those great cities of -the desert that lie uninhabited and waste, we can but conjecture their -term of existence from the vast extent of their cemeteries. We only -know that the dark, finely-grained schists in which they so abundantly -occur must have been of comparatively slow formation, and that yet the -thickness of the deposit more than equals the height of our loftiest -Scottish mountains. It would seem as if a period equal to that in which -all human history is comprised might be cut out of a corner of the period -represented by the Lower Old Red Sandstone, and be scarce missed when -away; for every year during which man has lived upon earth, it is not -improbable that the _Pterichthys_ and its contemporaries may have lived a -century. Their last hour, however, at length came. Over the dark-colored -ichthyolitic schists so immensely developed in Caithness and Orkney, -there occurs a pale-tinted, unfossiliferous sandstone, which in the -island of Hoy rises into hills of from fourteen to sixteen hundred feet -in height; and among the organisms of those newer formations of the Old -Red which overlie this deposit, not a species of ichthyolite identical -with the species entombed in the lower schists has yet been detected. In -the blank interval which the arenaceous deposit represents, tribes and -families perished and disappeared, leaving none of their race to succeed -them, that other tribes and families might be called into being, and fall -into their vacant places in the onward march of creation. - -Such, so far as the various hieroglyphics of the pile have yet rendered -their meanings to the geologist, is the strange story recorded on the -three-barred _pyramid_ of Stromness. I traced the formation upwards this -evening along the edges of the upturned strata, from where the Great -Conglomerate leans against the granite, till where it merges into the -ichthyolitic flagstones; and then pursued these from older and lower to -newer and higher layers, desirous of ascertaining at what distance over -the base of the system its more ancient organisms first appear, and what -their character and kind. And, embedded in a grayish-colored layer of -hard flag, somewhat less than a hundred yards over the granite, and about -a hundred and sixty feet over the upper stratum of the conglomerate, I -found what I sought,—a well-marked bone,—in all probability the oldest -vertebrate remain yet discovered in Orkney. What, asks the reader, was -the character of this ancient organism of the Palæozoic basin? - -As shown by its cancellated texture, palpable to the naked eye, and -still more unequivocally by the irregular complexity of fabric which -it exhibits under the microscope,—by its speck-like life-points or -canaliculi, that remind one of air-bubbles in ice,—its branching -channels, like minute veins, through which the blood must once have -flown,—and its general groundwork of irregular lines of corpuscular -fibre, that wind through the whole like currents in a river studded with -islands,—it was as truly osseous in its composition as the solid bones of -any of the reptiles of the Secondary, or the quadrupeds of the Tertiary -periods. And in form it closely resembled a large roofing-nail. With this -bone our more practised palæontologists are but little acquainted, for -no remains of the animal to which it belonged have yet been discovered -in Britain to the south of the Grampians,[3] nor, except in the Old Red -Sandstone of Russia, has it been detected any where on the Continent. -Nor am I aware that, save in the accompanying wood-cut, (fig. 1,) it has -ever been figured. The amateur geologists of Caithness and Orkney have, -however, learned to recognize it as the “petrified nail.” The length -of the entire specimen in this instance was five seven eighth inches, -the transverse breadth of the head two inches and a quarter, and the -thickness of the stem nearly three tenth parts of an inch. This nail-like -bone formed a characteristic portion of the _Asterolepis_,—so far as -is yet known, the most gigantic ganoid of the Old Red Sandstone, and, -judging from the _place_ of this fragment, apparently one of the first. - -[Illustration: Fig. 1. - -INTERNAL RIDGE OF HYOID PLATE OF ASTEROLEPSIS.[4] - -(One third the natural size, linear.)] - -There were various considerations which led me to regard the “petrified -nail” in this case as one of the most interesting fossils I had ever -seen; and, before quitting Orkney, to pursue my explorations farther to -the south, I brought two intelligent geologists of the district,[5] to -mark its place and character, that they might be able to point it out to -geological visitors in the future, or, if they preferred removing it to -their town museum, to indicate to them the stratum in which it had lain. -It showed me, among other things, how unsafe it is for the geologist to -base positive conclusions on merely negative data. Founding on the fact -that, of many hundred ichthyolites of the Lower Old Red Sandstone which -I had disinterred and examined, all were of comparatively small size, -while in the Upper Old Red many of the ichthyolites are of great mass and -bulk, I had inferred that vertebrate life had been restricted to minuter -forms at the commencement than at the close of the system. It had begun, -I had ventured to state in the earlier editions of a little work on the -“Old Red Sandstone,” with an age of dwarfs, and had ended with an age -of giants. And now, here, at the very base of the system, unaccompanied -by aught to establish the contemporary existence of its dwarfs,—which -appear, however, in an overlying bed about a hundred feet higher up,—was -there unequivocal proof of the existence of one of the most colossal of -its giants. But not unfrequently, in the geologic field, has the practice -of basing positive conclusions on merely negative grounds led to a -misreading of the record. From evidence of a kind exactly similar to that -on which I had built, it was inferred, some two or three years ago, that -there had lived no reptiles during the period of the Coal Measures, and -no fish in the times of the Lower Silurian System. - -I extended my researches, a few days after, in an easterly direction from -the town of Stromness, and walked for several miles along the shores of -the Loch of Stennis,—a large lake about fourteen miles in circumference, -bare and treeless, like all the other lakes and lochs of Orkney, but -picturesque of outline, and divided into an upper and lower sheet of -water by two low, long promontories, that jut out from opposite sides, -and so nearly meet in the middle as to be connected by a thread-like -line of road, half mound, half bridge. “The Loch of Stennis,” says Mr. -David Vedder, the sailor-poet of Orkney, “is a beautiful Mediterranean in -miniature.” It gives admission to the sea by a narrow strait, crossed, -like that which separates the two promontories in the middle, by a -long rustic bridge; and, in consequence of this peculiarity, the lower -division of the lake is salt in its nether reaches and brackish in its -upper ones, while the higher division is merely brackish in its nether -reaches, and fresh enough in its upper ones to be potable. Viewed from -the east, in one of the long, clear, sunshiny evenings of the Orkney -summer, it seems not unworthy the eulogium of Vedder. There are moory -hills and a few rude cottages in front; and in the background, some -eight or ten miles away, the bold, steep mountain masses of Hoy; while -on the promontories of the lake, in the middle distance, conspicuous -in the landscape, from the relief furnished by the blue ground of the -surrounding waters, stand the tall gray obelisks of Stennis—one group on -the northern promontory, the other on the south,— - - “Old even beyond tradition’s breath.” - -The shores of both the upper and lower divisions of the lake were -strewed, at the time I passed, by a line of _wrack_, consisting, for -the first few miles from where the lower loch opens to the sea, of only -marine plants, then of marine plants mixed with those of fresh-water -growth, and then, in the upper sheet of water, of lacustrine plants -exclusively. And the fauna of the loch is, I was informed, of as mixed a -character as its flora,—the marine and fresh-water animals having each -their own reaches, with certain debatable tracts between, in which each -kind expatiates with more or less freedom, according to its specific -nature and constitution,—some of the sea-fish advancing far on the fresh -water, and others, among the proper denizens of the lake, encroaching -far on the salt. The common fresh-water eel strikes out, I was told, -farthest into the sea-water; in which, indeed, reversing the habits -of the salmon, it is known in various places to deposit its spawn. It -seeks, too, impatient of a low temperature, to escape from the cold of -winter, by taking refuge in water brackish enough, in a climate such -as ours, to resist the influence of frost. Of the marine fish, on the -other hand, I found that the flounder got greatly higher than any of -the others, inhabiting reaches of the lake almost entirely fresh. I -have had an opportunity elsewhere of observing a curious change which -fresh water induces in this fish. In the brackish water of an estuary, -the animal becomes, without diminishing in general size, thicker and -more fleshy than when in its legitimate habitat, the sea: but the flesh -loses in quality what it gains in quantity;—it grows flabby and insipid, -and the margin-fin lacks always its strip of transparent fat. But the -change induced in the two floras of the lake—marine and lacustrine—is -considerably more palpable and obvious than that induced in its two -faunas. As I passed along the strait, through which it gives admission -to the sea, I found the commoner fucoids of our sea-coasts streaming -in great luxuriance in the tideway, from the stones and rocks of the -bottom. I marked, among the others, the two species of kelp-weed, so -well known to our Scotch kelp-burners,—_Fucus nodosus_ and _Fucus -vesiculosus_,—flourishing in their uncurtailed proportions; and the -not inelegant _Halidrys siliquosa_, or “tree in the sea,” presenting -its amplest spread of pod and frond. A little farther in, _Halidrys_ -and _Fucus nodosus_ disappear, and _Fucus vesiculosus_ becomes greatly -stunted, and no longer exhibits its characteristic double rows of -bladders. But for mile after mile it continues to exist, blent with some -of the hardier confervæ, until at length it becomes as dwarfish and -nearly as slim of frond as the confervæ themselves; and it is only by -tracing it through the intermediate forms that we succeed in convincing -ourselves that, in the brown stunted tufts of from one to three inches -in length, which continue to fringe the middle reaches of the lake, -we have in reality the well-known Fucus before us. Rushes, flags, and -aquatic grasses may now be seen standing in diminutive tufts out of the -water; and a terrestrial vegetation at least continues to exist, though -it can scarce be said to thrive, on banks covered by the tide at full. -The lacustrine flora increases, both in extent and luxuriance, as that of -the sea diminishes; and in the upper reaches we fail to detect all trace -of marine plants: the algæ, so luxuriant of growth along the straits of -this “miniature Mediterranean,” altogether cease; and a semi-aquatic -vegetation attains, in turn, to the state of fullest development any -where permitted by the temperature of this northern locality. A memoir -descriptive of the Loch of Stennis, and its productions, animal and -vegetable, such as old Gilbert White of Selborne could have produced, -would be at once a very valuable and curious document, important to the -naturalist, and not without its use to the geological student. - -I know not how it may be with others; but the special phenomena connected -with Orkney that most decidedly bore fruit in my mind, and to which -my thoughts have most frequently reverted, were those exhibited in -the neighborhood of Stromness. I would more particularly refer to the -characteristic fragment of _Asterolepis_, which I detected in its lower -flagstones, and to the curiously mixed, semi-marine, semi-lacustrine -vegetation of the Loch of Stennis. Both seem to bear very directly on -that development hypothesis,—fast spreading among an active and ingenious -order of minds, both in Britain and America, and which has been long -known on the Continent,—that would fain transfer the work of creation -from the department of miracle to the province of natural law, and would -strike down, in the process of removal, all the old landmarks, ethical -and religious. - - - - -THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. - - -Every individual, whatever its species or order, begins and increases -until it attains to its state of fullest development, under certain -fixed laws, and _in consequence_ of their operation. The microscopic -monad develops into a fœtus, the fœtus into a child, the child into -a man; and, however marvellous the process, in none of its stages is -there the slightest mixture of miracle; from beginning to end, all is -progressive development, according to a determinate order of things. -Has _Nature_, during the vast geologic periods, been pregnant, in like -manner, with the human race? and is the species, like the individual, -an effect of progressive development, induced and regulated by law? The -assertors of the revived hypothesis of Maillet and Lamarck reply in the -affirmative. Nor, be it remarked, is there positive atheism involved in -the belief. God might as certainly have _originated_ the species by a -law of development, as he _maintains_ it by a law of development; the -existence of a First Great Cause is as perfectly compatible with the -one scheme as with the other; and it may be necessary thus broadly to -state the fact, not only in justice to the Lamarckians, but also fairly -to warn their non-geological opponents, that in this contest the old -anti-atheistic arguments, whether founded on the evidence of design, or -on the preliminary doctrine of final causes, cannot be brought to bear. - -There are, however, beliefs, in no degree less important to the moralist -or the Christian than even that in the being of a God, which seem wholly -incompatible with the development hypothesis. It, during a period so -vast as to be scarce expressible by figures, the creatures now human -have been rising, by _almost_ infinitesimals, from compound microscopic -cells,—minute vital globules within globules, begot by electricity on -dead gelatinous matter,—until they have at length become the men and -women whom we see around us, we must hold either the monstrous belief, -that all the vitalities, whether those of monads or of mites, of fishes -or of reptiles, of birds or of beasts, are individually and inherently -immortal and undying, or that human souls are _not_ so. The difference -between the dying and the undying,—between the spirit of the brute that -goeth downward, and the spirit of the man that goeth upward,—is not a -difference infinitesimally, or even atomically _small_. It possesses -all the breadth of the eternity to come, and is an _infinitely great_ -difference. It cannot, if I may so express myself, be shaded off by -infinitesimals or atoms; for it is a difference which—as there can be -no class of beings intermediate in their nature between the dying and -the undying—admits not of gradation at all. What mind, regulated by the -ordinary principles of human belief, can possibly hold that every one -of the thousand vital points which swim in a drop of stagnant water are -inherently fitted to maintain their individuality throughout eternity? Or -how can it be rationally held that a mere progressive step, in itself no -greater or more important than that effected by the addition of a single -brick to a house in the building state, or of a single atom to a body -in the growing state, could ever have produced immortality? And yet, -if the _spirit_ of a monad or of a mollusc be not immortal, then must -there either have been a point in the history of the species at which -a dying brute—differing from its offspring merely by an inferiority of -development, represented by a few atoms, mayhap by a single atom—produced -an undying man, or man in his present state must be a mere animal, -possessed of no immortal soul, and as irresponsible for his actions to -the God before whose bar he is, in consequence, never to appear, as his -presumed relatives and progenitors the beasts that perish. Nor will it -do to attempt escaping from the difficulty, by alleging that God at some -certain link in the chain _might_ have converted a mortal creature into -an immortal existence, by breathing into it a “living soul;” seeing that -a renunciation of any such direct interference on the part of Deity in -the work of creation forms the prominent and characteristic feature of -the scheme,—nay, that it constitutes the very nucleus round which the -scheme has originated. And thus, though the development theory be not -atheistic, it is at least practically tantamount to atheism. For, if man -be a dying creature, restricted in his existence to the present scene of -things, what does it really matter to him, for any one moral purpose, -whether there be a God or no? If in reality on the same religious level -with the dog, wolf, and fox, that are by nature _atheists_,—a nature most -properly coupled with irresponsibility,—to what one practical purpose -should he know or believe in a God whom he, as certainly as they, is -never to meet as his Judge? or why should he square his conduct by -the requirements of the moral code, farther than a low and convenient -expediency may chance to demand?[6] - -Nor does the purely Christian objection to the development hypothesis -seem less, but even more insuperable than that derived from the -province of natural theology. The belief which is perhaps of all others -most fundamentally essential to the revealed scheme of salvation, is -the belief that “God created man upright,” and that man, instead of -proceeding onward and upward from this high and fair beginning, to a yet -higher and fairer standing in the scale of creation, sank and became -morally lost and degraded. And hence the necessity for that second -dispensation of recovery and restoration which forms the entire burden -of God’s revealed message to man. If, according to the development -theory, the progress of the “first Adam” was an upward progress, the -existence of the “second Adam”—that “happier man,” according to Milton, -whose special work it is to “restore” and “regain the blissful seat” of -the lapsed race—is simply a meaningless anomaly. Christianity, if the -development theory be true, is exactly what some of the more extreme -Moderate divines of the last age used to make it—an idle and unsightly -excrescence on a code of morals that would be perfect were it away. - -I may be in error in taking this serious view of the matter; and, if so, -would feel grateful to the man who could point out to me that special -link in the chain of inference at which, with respect to the bearing of -the theory on the two theologies—natural and revealed—the mistake has -taken place. But if I be in error at all, it is an error into which I -find not a few of the first men of the age,—represented, as a class, by -our Professor Sedgwicks and Sir David Brewsters,—have also fallen; and -until it be shown to _be_ an error, and that the development theory is in -no degree incompatible with a belief in the immortality of the soul—in -the responsibility of man to God as the final Judge—or in the Christian -scheme of salvation—it is every honest man’s duty to protest against any -_ex parte_ statement of the question, that would insidiously represent -it as ethically an indifferent one, or as unimportant in its theologic -bearing, save to “little religious sects and scientific coteries.” In -an address on the fossil flora, made in September last by a gentleman -of Edinburgh to the St. Andrew’s Horticultural Society, there occurs -the following passage on this subject: “Life is governed by external -conditions, and new conditions imply new races; but then as to their -creation, that is the ‘_mystery of mysteries_.’ Are they created by an -immediate fiat and direct act of the Almighty? or has He originally -impressed life with an elasticity and adaptability, so that it shall -take upon itself new forms and characters, according to the conditions -to which it shall be subjected? Each opinion has had, and still has, -its advocates and opponents; but the truth is, that _science_, so far -as it knows, or rather so far as it has had the honesty and courage to -avow, has yet been unable to pronounce a satisfactory decision. _Either -way, it matters little_, _physically or morally_, either mode implies -the same omnipotence, and wisdom, and foresight, and protection; and it -is only your little religious sects and scientific coteries which make -a pother about the matter,—sects and coteries of which it may be justly -said, that they would almost exclude God from the management of his own -world, if not managed and directed in the way that they would have it.” -Now, this is surely a most unfair representation of the consequences, -ethical and religious involved in the development hypothesis. It is not -its compatibility with belief in the existence of a First Great Cause -that has to be established, in order to prove it harmless; but its -compatibility with certain other all-important beliefs, without which -simple Theism is of no moral value whatever—a belief in the immortality -and responsibility of man, and in the scheme of salvation by a Mediator -and Redeemer. Dissociated from these beliefs, a belief in the existence -of a God is of as little _ethical_ value as a belief in the existence of -the great sea-serpent. - -Let us see whether we cannot determine what the testimony of Geology, -on this question of creation by development, really is. It is always -perilous to under-estimate the strength of an enemy; and the danger from -the development hypothesis to an ingenious order of minds, smitten with -the novel fascinations of physical science, has been under-estimated -very considerably indeed. Save by a few studious men, who to the -cultivation of Geology and the cognate branches add some acquaintance -with metaphysical science, the general correspondence of the line of -assault taken up by this new school of infidelity, with that occupied -by the old, and the consequent ability of the assailants to bring, not -only the recently forged, but also the previously employed artillery into -full play along its front, has not only not been marked, but even not -so much as suspected. And yet, in order to show that there actually is -such a correspondence, it can be but necessary to state, that the great -antagonist points in the array of the opposite lines, are simply the -_law_ of development _versus_ the _miracle_ of creation. The evangelistic -Churches cannot, in consistency with their character, or with a due -regard to the interests of their people, slight or overlook a form of -error at once exceedingly plausible and consummately dangerous, and which -is telling so widely on society, that one can scarce travel by railway or -in a steamboat, or encounter a group of intelligent mechanics, without -finding decided trace of its ravages. - -But ere the Churches can be prepared competently to deal with it, or with -the other objections of a similar class which the infidelity of an age so -largely engaged as the present in physical pursuits will be from time to -time originating they must greatly extend their educational walks into -the field of physical science. The mighty change which has taken place -during the present century, in the direction in which the minds of the -first order are operating, though indicated on the face of the country in -characters which cannot be mistaken, seems to have too much escaped the -notice of our theologians. Speculative theology and the metaphysics are -cognate branches of the same science; and when, as in the last and the -preceding ages, the higher philosophy of the world was metaphysical, the -Churches took ready cognizance of the fact, and, in due accordance with -the requirements of the time, the battle of the Evidences was fought on -metaphysical ground. But, judging from the preparations made in their -colleges and halls, they do not now seem sufficiently aware—though the -low thunder of every railway, and the snort of every steam engine, and -the whistle of the wind amid the wires of every electric telegraph, -serve to publish the fact—that it is in the departments of physics, not -of metaphysics, that the greater minds of the age are engaged,—that the -Lockes, Humes, Kants, Berkeleys, Dugald Stewarts, and Thomas Browns, -belong to the past,—and that the philosophers of the present time, tall -enough to be seen all the world over, are the Humboldts, the Aragos, the -Agassizes, the Liebigs, the Owens, the Herschels, the Bucklands, and the -Brewsters. In that educational course through which, in this country, -candidates for the ministry pass, in preparation for their office, -I find every group of great minds which has in turn influenced and -directed the mind of Europe for the last three centuries, represented, -more or less adequately, save the last. It is an epitome of all kinds -of learning, with the exception of the kind most imperatively required, -because most in accordance with the genius of the time. The restorers of -classic literature—the Buchanans and Erasmuses—we see represented in our -Universities by the Greek and what are termed the Humanity courses; the -Galileos, Boyles, and Newtons, by the Mathematical and Natural Philosophy -courses; and the Lockes, Kants, Humes, and Berkeleys, by the Metaphysical -course. But the Cuviers, the Huttons, the Cavendishes, and the Watts, -with their successors, the practical philosophers of the present age,—men -whose achievements in physical science we find marked on the surface of -the country in characters which might be read from the moon,—are _not_ -adequately represented. It would be perhaps more correct to say, that -they are not represented at all;[7] and the clergy, as a class, suffer -themselves to linger far in the rear of an intelligent and accomplished -laity—a full age behind the requirements of the time. Let them not shut -their eyes to the danger which is obviously coming. The battle of the -Evidences will have as certainly to be fought on the field of physical -science, as it was contested in the last age on that of the metaphysics. -And on this new arena the combatants will have to employ new weapons, -which it will be the privilege of the challenger to choose. The old, -opposed to these, would prove but of little avail. In an age of muskets -and artillery, the bows and arrows of an obsolete school of warfare -would be found greatly less than sufficient, in the field of battle, for -purposes either of assault or defence. - -“There are two kinds of generation in the world,” says Professor Lorenz -Oken, in his “Elements of Physio-philosophy;” “the creation proper, and -the propagation that is sequent thereupon—or the _generatio originaria_ -and _secundaria_. Consequently, no organism has been created of larger -size than an infusorial point. No organism is, nor ever has one been -created, which is not microscopic. Whatever is larger has not been -created, but developed. Man has not been created, but developed.” Such, -in a few brief dogmatic sentences, is the development theory. What, -in order to establish its truth, or even to render it in some degree -probable, ought to be the geological evidence regarding it? The reply -seems obvious. In the first place, the earlier fossils ought to be very -_small_ in size; in the second, very _low_ in organization. In cutting -into the stony womb of nature, in order to determine what it contained -mayhap millions of ages ago, we must expect, if the development theory -be true, to look upon mere embryos and fœtuses. And if we find, instead, -the full grown and the mature, then must we hold that the testimony of -Geology is not only _not in accordance_ with the theory, but in positive -opposition to it. Such, palpably, is the _principle_ on which, in this -matter, we ought to decide. What are the _facts_? - -The oldest organism yet discovered in the most ancient geological -system of Scotland in which vertebrate remains occur, _seems_ to be the -_Asterolepis_ of Stromness. After the explorations of many years over a -wide area, I have detected none other equally low in the system; nor have -I ascertained that any brother-explorer in the same field has been more -fortunate. It is, up to the present time, the most ancient Scotch witness -of the great class of fishes that can in this case be brought into court; -nay, it is in all probability the oldest _ganoid_ witness the world has -yet produced; for there appears no certain trace of this order of fishes -in the great Silurian system which lies underneath, and in which, so far -as geologists yet know, organic existence first began. How, then, on the -two relevant points—bulk and organization—does it answer to the demands -of the development hypothesis? Was it a mere fœtus of the finny tribe, -of minute size, and imperfect, embryonic faculty? Or was it of at least -the ordinary bulk, and, for its class, of the average organization? -May I solicit the forbearance of the non-geological reader, should my -reply to these apparently simple questions seem unnecessarily prolix and -elaborate? Peculiar opportunities of observation, and the possession of -a set of unique fossils, enable me to submit to our palæontologists a -certain amount of information regarding this ancient ganoid, which they -will deem at once interesting and new; and the bearing of my statements -on the general argument will, I trust, become apparent as I proceed. - - - - -THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS. ITS FAMILY. - - -It had been long known to the continental naturalists, that in certain -Russian deposits, very extensively developed, there occur in considerable -abundance certain animal organisms; but for many years neither their -position nor character could be satisfactorily determined. By some they -were placed too high in the scale of organized being; by others too low. -Kutorga, a writer not very familiarly known in this country, described -the remains as those of mammals;—the Russian rocks contained, he said, -bones of quadrupeds, and, in especial, the teeth of swine: whereas -Lamarck, a better known authority, though not invariably a safe one,—for -he had a trick of dreaming when wide awake, and of calling his dreams -philosophy,—assigned to them a place among the corals. They belonged, -he asserted, as shown by certain star-like markings with which they are -fretted, to the Polyparia. He even erected for their reception a new -genus of Astrea, which he designated, from the little rounded hillock -which rises in the middle of each star, the genus _Monticularia_. It was -left to a living naturalist, M. Eichwald, to fix their true position -zoologically among the class of fishes, and to Sir Roderick Murchison -to determine their position geologically as ichthyolites of the Old Red -Sandstone. - -Sir Roderick, on his return from his great Russian campaigns, in which -he fared far otherwise than Napoleon, and accomplished more, submitted -to Agassiz a series of fragments of these gigantic Ganoids; and the -celebrated ichthyologist, who had been introduced little more than -a twelvemonth before to the _Pterichthys_ of Cromarty, was at first -inclined to regard them as the remains of a large cuirassed fish of -the Cephalaspian type, but generically new. Under this impression he -bestowed upon the yet unknown ichthyolite of which they had formed part, -the name _Chelonichthys_, from the resemblance borne by the broken -plates to those of the carapace and plastron of some of the Chelonians. -At this stage, however, the Russian Old Red yielded a set of greatly -finer remains than it had previously furnished; and of these casts were -transmitted by Professor Asmus, of the University of Dorpat, to the -British and London Geological Museums, and to Agassiz. “I knew not at -first what to do,” says the ichthyologist, “with bones of so singular -a conformation that I could refer them to no known type.” Detecting, -however, on their exterior surfaces the star-like markings which had -misled Lamarck, and which he had also detected on the lesser fragments -submitted to him by Sir Roderick, he succeeded in identifying both the -fragments and bones as remains of the same genus and on ascertaining -that M. Eichwald had bestowed upon it, from these characteristic -sculpturings, the generic name _Asterolepis_, or star-scale, he suffered -the name which he himself had originated to drop. Even this second name, -however, which the ichthyolite still continues to bear, is in some degree -founded in error. Its true scales, as I shall by and by show, were not -stelliferous, but fretted by a peculiar style of ornament, consisting -of waved anastomosing ridges, breaking atop into angular-shaped dots, -scooped out internally like the letter V; and were evidently intermediate -in their character between the scales which cover the _Glyptolepis_ -and those of the _Holoptychius_. And the stellate markings which M. -Eichwald graphically describes as minute paps rising out of the middle -of star-like wreaths of little leaflets, were restricted to the dermal -plates of the head. - -Agassiz ultimately succeeded in classing the bones which had at first so -puzzled him, into two divisions—interior and dermal; and the latter he -divided yet further, though not without first lodging a precautionary -protest, founded on the extreme obscurity of the subject, into cranial -and opercular. Of the interior bones he specified two,—a super-scapular -bone, (_supra-scapulaire_,)—that bone which in osseous fishes completes -the scapular arch or belt, by uniting the scapula to the cranium; and -a maxillary or upper jaw-bone. But his world-wide acquaintance with -existing fishes could lend him no assistance in determining the places -of the dermal bones: they formed the mere fragments of a broken puzzle, -of which the key was lost. Even in their detached and irreducible state, -however, he succeeded in basing upon them several shrewd deductions. He -inferred, in the first place, that the _Asterolepis_ was not, as had -been at first supposed, a cuirassed fish, which took its place among -the Cephalaspians, but a strongly helmed fish of that Cœlacanth family -to which the _Holoptychius_ and _Glyptolepis_ belong; in the second, -that, like several of its bulkier cogeners, it was in all probability -a broad, flat-headed animal; and, in the third, that as its remains -are found associated in the Russian beds with numerous detached teeth -of large size,—the boar tusks of Kutorga—which present internally that -peculiar microscopic character on which Professor Owen has erected his -Dendrodic or tree-toothed family of fishes,—it would in all likelihood -be found that both bones and teeth belonged to the same group. “It -appears more than probable,” he said, “that one day, by the discovery of -a head or an entire jaw, it will be shown that the genera _Dendrodus_ -and _Asterolepis_ form but one.” As we proceed, the reader will see how -justly the ichthyologist assigned to the _Asterolepis_ its place among -the Cœlacanths, and how entirely his two other conjectures regarding it -have been confirmed. “I have had in general,” he concluded, “but small -and mutilated fragments of the creature’s bones submitted to me, and -of these, even the surface ornaments not well preserved; but I hope -the immense materials with which the Old Red Sandstone of Russia has -furnished the savans of that country will not be lost to science; and -that my labors on this interesting genus, incomplete as they are, will -excite more and more the attention of geologists, by showing them how -ignorant we are of all the essential facts concerning the history of the -first inhabitants of our globe.” - -I know not what the savans of Russia have been doing for the last few -years; but mainly through the labors of an intelligent tradesman of -Thurso, Mr. Robert Dick,—one of those working men of Scotland of active -curiosity and well-developed intellect, that give character and standing -to the rest,—I am enabled to justify the classification and confirm the -conjectures of Agassiz. Mr. Dick, after acquainting himself, in the -leisure hours of a laborious profession, with the shells, insects, and -plants of the northern locality in which he resides, had set himself to -study its geology; and with this view he procured a copy of the little -treatise on the Old Red Sandstone to which I have already referred, and -which was at that time, as Agassiz’s Monograph of the Old Red fishes had -not yet appeared, the only work specially devoted to the palæontology -of the system, so largely developed in the neighborhood of Thurso. With -perhaps a single exception,—for the Thurso rocks do not yet seem to have -yielded a _Pterichthys_,—he succeeded in finding specimens, in a state -of better or worse keeping, of all the various ichthyolites which I had -described as peculiar to the Lower Old Red Sandstone. He found, however, -what I had _not_ described,—the remains of apparently a very gigantic -ichthyolite; and, communicating with me through the medium of a common -friend, he submitted to me, in the first instance, drawings of his new -set of fossils; and ultimately, as I could arrive at no satisfactory -conclusion from the drawings, he with great liberality made over to me -the fossils themselves. Agassiz’s Monograph was not yet published; nor -had I an opportunity of examining, until about a twelvemonth after, -the casts, in the British Museum, of the fossils of Professor Asmus. -Besides, all the little information, derived from various sources, which -I had acquired respecting the Russian _Chelonichthys_,—for such was its -name at the time,—referred it to the cuirassed type, and served but to -mislead. I was assured, for instance, that Professor Asmus regarded -his set of remains as portions of the plates and paddles of a gigantic -_Pterichthys_, of from twenty to thirty feet in length. And so, as I had -recognized in the Thurso fossils the peculiarities of the _Holoptychian_ -(Cœlacanth) family, I at first failed to identify them with the remains -of the great Russian fish. All the larger bones sent me by Mr. Dick were, -I found, cerebral; and the scales associated with these indicated, not -a cuirass-protected, but a scale-covered body and exhibited, in their -sculptured and broadly imbricated surfaces, the well-marked Cœlacanth -style of disposition and ornament. But though I could _not_ recognize in -either bones or scales the remains of one ichthyolite more of the Old -Red Sandstone, “that could be regarded as manifesting as peculiar a type -among fishes as do the Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri among reptiles,”[8] -I was engaged at the time in a course of inquiry regarding the cerebral -development of the earlier vertebrata, that made me deem them scarce less -interesting than if I could. Ere, however, I attempt communicating to the -reader the result of my researches, I must introduce him, in order that -he may be able to set out with me to the examination of the _Asterolepis_ -from the same starting-point, to the Cœlacanth family,—indisputably one -of the oldest, and not the least interesting, of its order. - -[Illustration: Fig. 2. - -a. _Shagreen of the Thornback (Raja clavata.)_ - -b. _Shagreen of Sphagodus,—a placoid of the Upper Silurian._[9]] - -So far as is yet known, all the fish of the earliest fossiliferous -system belonged to the placoid or “_broad plated_” order,—a great -division of fishes, represented in the existing seas by the Sharks and -Rays,—animals that to an internal skeleton of cartilage unite a dermal -covering of points, plates, or spines of enamelled bone, and have their -gills fixed. The dermal or cuticular bones of this order vary greatly in -form, according to the species or family: in some cases they even vary, -according to their place, on the same individual. Those button-like -tubercles, for instance, with an enamelled thorn, bent like a hook, -growing out of the centre of each, which run down the back and tail, and -stud the pectorals of the thorn-back, (_Raja clavata_,) differ very much -from the smaller thorns, with star-formed bases, which roughen the other -parts of the creature’s body; and the bony points which mottle the back -and sides of the sharks are, in most of the known species, considerably -more elongated and prickly than the points which cover their fins, belly, -and snout. The extreme forms, however, of the shagreen tubercle or plate -seem to be those of the upright prickle or spine on the one hand, and of -the slant-laid, rhomboidal, scale-shaped plate on the other. The minuter -thorns of the ray (fig. 2, _a_) exemplify the extreme of the prickly -type; the fins, abdomen, and anterior part of the head of the spotted -dog-fish (_Scyllium stellare_) are covered by lozenge-shaped little -plates, which glisten with enamel, and are so thickly set that they cover -the entire surface of the skin, (fig. 3, _b_,)—and these seem equally -illustrative of the scale-like form. They are shagreen points passing -into osseous scales, without, however, becoming really such; though they -approach them so nearly in the shape and disposition of their upper -disks, that the true scales, also osseous, of the _Acanthodes sulcatus_, -(fig. 3, _a_,) a Ganoid of the Coal Measures, can scarce be distinguished -from them, even when microscopically examined. It is only when seen in -section that the distinctive difference appears. The true scale of the -Acanthodes, though considerably elevated in the centre, seems to have -been planted on the skin; whereas the scale-like shagreen of the dog-fish -is elevated over it on an osseous pedicle or footstalk (fig. 5, _a_) as -a mushroom is elevated over the sward on its stem; and the base of the -stalk is found to resemble in its stellate character that of a shagreen -point of the prickly type. The apparent scale is, we find, a bony prickle -bent at right angles a little over its base, and flattened into a -rhomboidal disk atop. - -[Illustration: Fig. 3. - -a. _Scales of Acanthodes sulcatus._ - -b. _Shagreen of Scyllium stellare, (Snout.)_ - -(Mag. eight diameters.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 4. - -a. _Scales of Cheiracanthus microlepidotus._ - -b. _Shagreen of Spinax Acanthias. (Snout.)_ - -(Mag. eight diameters.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 5. - -a. _Section of shagreen of Scyllium stellare._ - -b. _Under surface of do._ - -c. _Section of scales of Cheiracanthus microlepidotus._ - -d. _Under surface of do._ - -(Mag. eight diameters.)] - -In small fragments of shagreen, (fig. 2 _b_) which have been detected in -the bone-bed of the Upper Ludlow Rocks, (Upper Silurian,) and constitute -the most ancient portions of this substance known to the palæontologist, -the osseous tubercles are, as in the minuter spikes of the ray, of the -upright thorn-like type; they merely serve to show that the placoids -of the first period possessed, like those of the existing seas, an -ability of secreting solid bone on their cuticular surfaces; and that, -though at least such of them as have bequeathed to us specimens of -their dermal armature possessed it in the form farthest removed from -that of their immediate successors the ganoid fishes, they resembled -them not less in the substance of which their dermoskeletal, than in -that of which their endoskeletal, parts were composed. For the internal -skeleton in both orders, during these early ages, seems to have been -equally cartilaginous, and the cuticular skeleton equally osseous. In -the ichthyolitic formation immediately over the Silurians,—that of the -Lower Old Red Sandstone,—the Ganoids first appear; and the members of at -least one of the families of the deposit, the Acanths,—a family rich in -genera and species,—seem to have formed connecting links between this -second order and their placoid predecessors. They were covered with true -scales (fig. 4, _a_,) and their free gills were protected by gill-covers; -and so they must be regarded as real Ganoids but as the shagreen of the -spotted dog-fish nearly approaches, in form and character, to ganoid -scales, without being really such, the scales of this family, on the -other hand, approached equally near, without changing their nature, to -the shagreen of the Placoids, especially to that of the spiked dogfish, -(_Spinax Acanthias_.) (Fig. 4, _b_.) We even find on their under surfaces -what seems to be an approximation to the characteristic footstalk. -They so considerably thicken in the middle from their edges inwards, -(fig. 5, _c_,) as to terminate in their centres in obtuse points. -With these shagreen-like scales, the heads, bodies, and fins of all -the species of at least two of the Acanth genera,—_Cheiracanthus_ and -_Diplacanthus_,—were as thickly covered as the heads, bodies, and fins -of the sharks are with their shagreen; and so slight was the degree of -imbrication, that the portion of each scale overlaid by the two scales in -immediate advance of it did not exceed the one twelfth part of its entire -area. In the scale of the _Cheiracanthus_ we find the covered portion -indicated by a smooth, narrow band, that ran along its anterior edges, -and which the furrows that fretted the exposed surface did not traverse. -It may be added, that both genera had the anterior edge of their fins -armed with strong spines,—a characteristic of several of the Placoid -families. - -[Illustration: Fig. 6. - -a. _Scales of Osteolepis macrolepidotus._ - -b. _Scales of an undescribed species of Glyptolepis._[10] - -(The single scales mag. two diameters;—the others nat. size.)] - -In the Dipterian genera _Osteolepis_ and _Diplopterus_ the scales -were more unequivocally such than in the Acanths, and more removed -from shagreen. The under surface of each was traversed longitudinally -by a raised bar, which attached it to the skin, and which, in the -transverse section, serves to remind one of the shagreen footstalk. -They are, besides, of a rhomboidal form; and, when seen in the finer -specimens, lying in their proper places on what had been once the -creature’s body, they seem merely laid down side by side in line, like -those rows of glazed tiles that pave a cathedral floor; but on more -careful examination, we find that each little tile was deeply grooved -on its higher side and end, (for it lay diagonally in relation to the -head,) like the flags of a stone roof, (fig. 6, _a_,)—that its lateral -and anterior neighbors impinged upon it along these grooves to the -extent of about one third its area,—and that it impinged, in turn, -to the same extent on the scales that bordered on it posteriorly and -latero-posteriorly. Now, in the Cœlacanth family, (and on this special -point the foregoing remarks are intended to bear,) the scales, which were -generally of a round or irregularly oval form, (fig. 6, _b_,) overlapped -each other to as great an extent as in any of the existing fishes of -the Cycloid or Ctenoid orders,—to as great an extent, for instance, as -in the carp, salmon, or herring. In a slated roof there is no part on -which the slates do not lie double, and along the lower edge of each -tier they lie triple;—there is more of slate covered than of slate seen: -whereas in a tile-roof, the covered portion is restricted to a small -strip running along the top and one of the edges of each tile, and the -tiles do not lie double in more than the same degree in which the slates -lie triple. The scaly cover of the two genera of Dipterians to which -I have referred was a cover on the _tile_-roof principle; and this is -an exceedingly common characteristic of the scales of the Ganoids. The -scaly cover of the Cœlacanths, on the other hand, was a cover on the -_slate_-roof principle;—there was in some of their genera about one third -more of each scale covered than exposed; and this is so rare a ganoidal -mode of arrangement, that, with the exception of the _Dipterus_,—a genus -which, though it gives its name to the Dipterian sept, differed greatly -from every other Dipterian,—I know not, beyond the limits of the ancient -Cœlacanth family, a single Ganoid that possessed it. The bony covering of -the Cœlacanths was _farthest_ removed in character from shagreen, as that -of their contemporaries the Acanths approximated to it most nearly; they -were, in this respect, the two extremes of their order; and did we find -the Cœlacanths in but the later geological formations, while the Acanths -were restricted to the earlier, it might be argued by assertors of the -development hypothesis, that the amply imbricated, slate-like scale of -the latter had been developed in the lapse of ages from the shagreen -tubercle, by passing in its downward course—broadening and expanding -as it descended—through the minute, scarcely imbricated disks of the -Acanths, and the more amply imbricated tile-like rhombs of the Dipterians -and Palæonisci, until it had reached its full extent of imbrication in -the familiar modern type exemplified in both the Cœlacanths and the -ordinary fishes. But such is not the order which nature has observed;—the -two extremes of the ganoid scale appear together in the same early -formation: both become extinct at a period geologically remote; and the -ganoid scales of the existing state of things which most nearly resemble -those of ancient time are scales formed on the intermediate or tile-roof -principle. - -The scales of the Cœlacanths were, in almost all the genera which -compose the family, of great size; in some species, of the greatest size -to which this kind of integument ever attained. Of a Cœlacanth of the -Coal Measures, the _Holoptychius Hibberti_, the scales in the larger -specimens were occasionally from five to six inches in diameter. Even -in the _Holoptychius nobilissimus_, in an individual scarcely exceeding -two and a half feet in length, they measured from an inch and a half to -an inch and three quarters each way. In the splendid specimen of this -last species, in the British Museum, there occur but fourteen scales -between the ventrals, though these lie low on the creature’s body, and -the head; and in a specimen of a smaller species,—the _Holoptychius -Andersoni_,—but about seventeen. The exposed portion of the scale was -in most species of the family curiously fretted by intermingled ridges -and furrows, pits and tubercles, which were either boldly relieved, as -in the _Holoptychius_, or existed, as in the _Glyptolepis_, as slim, -delicately chiselled threads, lines, and dots. The head was covered by -strong plates, which were roughened with tubercles either confluent or -detached, or hollowed, as in the _Bothriolepis_, into shallow pits. The -jaws were thickly set with an outer range of true fish teeth, and more -thinly with an inner range of what seem _reptile_ teeth, that stood up, -tall and bulky, behind the others, like officers on horseback seen over -the heads of their foot-soldiers in front. The _double_ fins,—pectorals -and ventrals,—were characterized each by a thick, angular, scale-covered -centre, fringed by the rays; and they must have borne externally -somewhat the form of the sweeping paddles of the Ichthyosaurian genus,—a -peculiarity shared also by the double fins of the _Dipterus_. The -_single_ fins, in all the members of the family of which specimens -have been found sufficiently entire to indicate the fact, were four in -number,—an anal, a caudal, and two dorsal fins; and, with the exception -of the anterior dorsal, which was comparatively small, and bent downwards -along the back, as if its rays had been distorted when young,[11] they -were all of large size. They crowded thickly on the posterior portion of -the body,—the anterior dorsal opposite the ventrals, and the posterior -dorsal opposite the anal fin. The fin-rays of the various members of the -family, and such of their spinous processes as have been detected, were -hollow tubular bones; or rather, like the larger pieces in the framework -of the Placoids, they were cartilaginous within, and covered externally -by a thin osseous crust or shell, which alone survives; and to this -peculiarity they owe their family name, Cœlacanth, or “hollow-spine.” -The internal hollow, _i. e._ cartilaginous centre, was, however, -equally a characteristic of the spinous processes of the _Coccosteus_. -In their general proportions, the Cœlacanths, if we perhaps except one -species,—the _Glyptolepis microlepidotus_,—were all squat, robust, -strongly-built fishes, of the Dirk Hatterick or Balfour-of-Burley type; -and not only in the larger specimens gigantic in their proportions, but -remarkable for the strength and weight of their armor, even when of but -moderate stature. The specimen of _Holoptychius nobilissimus_ in the -British Museum could have measured little more than three feet from snout -to tail when most entire; but it must have been nearly a foot in breadth, -and a bullet would have rebounded flattened from its scales. And such -was that ancient Cœlacanth family, of which the oldest of our Scotch -Ganoids,—the _Asterolepis_ of Stromness,—formed one of the members, and -which for untold ages has had no living representative. - -Let us now enter on our proposed inquiry regarding the cerebral -development of the earlier vertebrata, and see whether we cannot -ascertain after what manner the first true brains were lodged, and -what those modifications were which their protecting box, the cranium, -received in the subsequent periods. Independently of its own special -interest, the inquiry will be found to have a direct bearing on our -general subject. - - - - -CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA. ITS APPARENT PRINCIPLE. - - -It is held by a class of naturalists, some of them of the highest -standing, that the skulls of the vertebrata consist, like the columns -to which they are attached, of vertebral joints, composed each, in the -more typical forms of head, as they are in the trunk, of five parts or -elements,—the centrum or body, the two spinous processes which enclose -the spinal cord, and the two ribs. These cranial vertebræ, four in -number, correspond, it is said, to the four senses that have their seat -in the head: there is the nasal vertebra, the centrum of which is the -vomer, its spinal processes the nasal and ethmoid bones, and its ribs the -_upper_ jaws; there is the ocular vertebra, the centrum of which is the -anterior portion of the sphenoid bone, its spinal processes the frontals, -and its ribs the _under_ jaws; there is the lingual vertebra, the centrum -of which is the posterior sphenoid bone, its spinal processes the -parietals, and its ribs the hyoid and branchial bones,—portions of the -skeleton largely developed in fishes; and, lastly, there is the auditory -vertebra, the centrum of which is the base of the occipital bone, and its -spinal processes the occipital crest, and which in the osseous fishes -bears attached to it, as its ribs, the bones of the scapular ring. And -the cerebral segments thus constructed we find represented in typical -diagrams of the skull, as real vertebræ. Professor Owen, in his lately -published treatise on “The Nature of Limbs,”—work charged with valuable -fact, and instinct with philosophy,—figures in his draught of the -archetypal skeleton of the vertebrata, the four vertebræ of the head, in -a form as unequivocally such as any of the vertebræ of the neck or body. - -Now, for certain purposes of generalization, I doubt not that the -conception may have its value. There are in all nature and in all -philosophy certain central ideas of general bearing, round which, at -distances less or more remote, the subordinate and particular ideas -arrange themselves, - - “Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.” - -In the classifications of the naturalist, for instance, all _species_ -range round some central _generic_ idea; all genera round some central -idea, to which we give the name of _order_; all orders round some central -idea of _class_; all classes round some central idea of _division_; -and all divisions round the interior central idea which constitutes -a _kingdom_. Sir Joshua Reynolds forms his theory of beauty on this -principle of central ideas. “Every species of the animal, as well as -of the vegetable creation,” he remarks, “may be said to have a fixed -or determinate form, towards which nature is continually inclining, -like various lines terminating in a centre; or it may be compared to -pendulums vibrating in different directions over one central point, -which they all cross, though only one of their number passes through -any other point.” He instances, in illustrating his theory, the Grecian -_beau ideal_ of the human nose, as seen in the statues of the Greek -deities. It formed a straight line; whereas all deformity of nose is of -a convex or concave character, and occasioned by either a rising above -or a sinking below this medial line of beauty. And it may be of use, as -it is unquestionably of interest, to conceive, after this manner, of a -certain type of skeleton, embodying, as it were, the central or primary -type of all vertebral skeletons, and consisting of a double range of -rings, united by the bodies of the vertebræ, as the two rings of a -figure 8 are united at their point of junction; the upper ring forming -the enclosure of the brain,—spinal, and cephalic; the lower that of -the viscera,—respiratory, circulatory, and digestive. Such is the idea -embodied in Professor Owen’s archetypal skeleton. It is a series of -vertebræ composing double rings,—their _brain_-rings comparatively small -in the vertebræ of the trunk, but of much greater size in the vertebræ -of the head. But it must not be forgotten, that central ideas, however -necessary to the classification of the naturalist, are not historic -facts. We may safely hold, with the philosophic painter, that the outline -of the typical human nose is a straight line; but it would be very -unsafe to hold, as a consequence, that the first men had all straight -noses. And when we find it urged by at least one eminent assertor of the -development hypothesis,—Professor Oken,—that light was the main agent in -developing the substance of nerve,—that the nerves, ranged in pairs, in -turn developed the vertebræ, each vertebra being but “the periphery or -envelope of a pair of nerves,”—and that the nerves of those four senses -of smell, sight, taste, and hearing, which, according to the Professor, -“make up the head,” originated the four cranial vertebræ which constitute -the skull,—it becomes us to test the central idea, thus converted into a -sort of historic myth, by the realities of actual history. What, then, -let us inquire, is the real history of the cerebral development of the -vertebrata, as recorded in the rocks of the earlier geologic periods? - -[Illustration: Fig. 7. - -_Osseous points of placoid cranium._[12] - -(Mag. twelve diameters)] - -Though the vertebrata existed in the ichthyic form throughout the vastly -extended Silurian period, we find in that system no remains of the -cranium: the Silurian fishes _seem_, as has been already said, (page -53,) to have been exclusively Placoid, and the purely cartilaginous box -formed by nature for the protection of the brain in this order has in -no case been preserved. Teeth, and, in at least one or two instances, -the minute jaws over which they were planted have been found, but no -portion of the skull. We know, however, that in the fishes of the same -order which now exist, the cranium consists of one undivided piece of a -cartilaginous substance, set thickly over its outer surface with minute -polygonal points of bone, (fig. 7,) composed internally of star-like -rays, that radiate from the centre of ossification, and that present, in -consequence, seen through a microscope, the appearance of the polygonal -cells of a coral of the genus Astrea. The pattern induced is that of -stars set within polygons. Along the sides or top of this unbroken -cranial box, that exhibits no mark of suture, we find the perforations -through which the nerves of smell, sight, taste, and hearing passed from -the brain outwards, and see that they have failed to originate distinct -vertebral envelopes for themselves;—they all lodge in one undivided -mansion-house, and have merely separate doors. We find, further, that -the homotypal _ribs_ of the entire cranium consist, not of four, but -simply of a single pair, attached to the occiput, and which serves both -to suspend the jaws, upper and nether, in their place under the middle of -the head, and to lend support to the hyoid and branchial framework; while -the scapular ring we find existing, as in the higher vertebrata, not as -a cerebral, but as a cervical or dorsal appendage. In the wide range -of the animal kingdom there are scarce any two pieces of organization -that less resemble one another in form than the vertebræ of the placoids -resemble their skulls; and the difference is not merely external, but -extends to even their internal construction. In both skull and vertebræ -we detect an union of bone and cartilage; but the bone of each vertebra -forms an internal continuous nucleus, round which the cartilage is -arranged, whereas in the skulls it is the cartilage that is internal, and -the bone is spread in granular points over it. If we dip the body of one -of the dorsal vertebræ of a herring into melted wax, and then withdraw -it, we will find it to represent in its crusted state the vertebral -centrum of a Placoid,—soft without, and osseous within; but in order -to represent the placoid skull, we would have first to mould it out of -one unbroken piece of wax, and then to cover it over with a priming of -bone-dust. And such is the effect of this arrangement, that, while the -skull of a Placoid, exposed to a red heat, falls into dust, from the -circumstance that the supporting framework on which the granular bone -was arranged perishes in the fire, the vertebral centrum, whose internal -framework is itself bone, and so _not_ perishable, comes out in a state -of beautiful entireness,—resembling in the thornback a squat sand-glass, -elegantly fenced round by the lateral pillars, (fig. 8, _b_;) and in -the dog-fish (_a_) a more elongated sand-glass, in which the lateral -pillars are wanting. Such are the heads and vertebral joints of the -existing Placoids; and such, reasoning from analogy, seem to have been -the character and construction of the heads and vertebral joints of the -Placoids of the Silurian period,—earliest-born of the Vertebrata. - -[Illustration: Fig. 8. - -a. _Osseous centrum of Spinax Acanthias._ - -b. _Osseous centrum of Raja clavata._ - -(Nat. size.)] - -The most ancient brain-bearing craniums that have come down to us -in the fossil state, are those of the Ganoids of the Lower Old Red -Sandstone; and in these fishes the true skull appears to have been -as entirely a simple cartilaginous box, as that of the Placoids of -either the Silurian period or of the present time, or of those existing -Ganoids, the sturgeons. In the Lower Old Red genera _Cheiracanthus_ and -_Diplacanthus_, though the heads are frequently preserved as amorphous -masses of colored matter, we detect no trace of internal bone, save -perhaps in the gill-covers of the first-named genus, which were fringed -by from eighteen to twenty minute osseous rays. The cranium seems to have -been covered, as in the shark family, by skin, and the skin by minute -shagreen-like scales; and all of the interior cerebral framework which -appears underneath exists simply as faint impressions of an undivided -body, covered by what seem to be osseous points,—the bony molecules, -it is probable, which encrusted the cartilage. The jaws, in the better -specimens, are also preserved in the same doubtful style, and this state -of keeping is the common one in deposits in which every true bone, -however delicate, presents an outline as sharp as when it occupied its -place in the living animal. The dermal or skin-skeleton of both genera, -which consisted, as has been shown (pages 55, 56) of shagreen-like -osseous scales and slender spines, both brilliantly enamelled, is -preserved entire; where as the interior framework of the head exists as -mere point speckled impressions; and the inference appears unavoidable -that parts which so invariably differ in their state of keeping now, must -have essentially differed in their substance originally. - -[Illustration: Fig. 9. - -a. _Portion of caudal fin of Cheiracanthus._[13] - -b. _Portion of caudal fin of Cheirolepis Cummingiæ._ - -(Mag. three diameters.)] - -Now, in the _Cheiracanthus_ we detect the first faint indications of -a peculiar arrangement of the dermal skeleton, in relation to certain -parts of the skeleton within, which—greatly more developed in some of its -contemporaries—led to important results in the general structure of these -Ganoids, and furnishes the true key to the character of the early ganoid -head. In such of the existing Placoids as I have had an opportunity of -examining, the only portions of the dermal skeleton of bone which conform -in their arrangement to portions of the interior skeleton of cartilage, -are the teeth, which are always laid on a base of skin right over the -jaws: there is also an approximation to arrangement of a corresponding -kind, though a distant one, in those hook-armed tubercles of certain -species of rays which run along the vertebral column; but in the shagreen -by which the creatures are covered I have been able to detect no such -arrangement. Whether it occurs on the fins, the body, or the head, or in -the scale form, or in that of the prickle, it manifests the same careless -irregularity. And on the head and body of the _Cheiracanthus_, and on -all its fins save one, the shagreen-like scales, though laid down more -symmetrically in lines than true shagreen, manifested an equal absence -of arrangement in relation to the framework within. On that one fin, -however;—the caudal,—the scales, passing from their ordinary rhomboidal -to a more rectangular form, ranged themselves in right lines over the -internal rays, (fig. 9, _a_,) and imparted to these such strength as a -splint of wood or whalebone fastened over a fractured toe or finger -imparts to the injured digit,—a provision which was probably rendered -necessary in the case of this important organ of motion, from the -circumstance that it was the only fin which the creature possessed that -was not strengthened and protected anteriorly by a strong spine. In the -_Cheirolepis_,—a contemporary fish, characterized, like its cogeners the -_Cheiracanthus_ and _Diplacanthus_, by shagreen-like scales, but in which -the spines were wanting,—we find a farther development of the provision. -In all the fins the richly-enamelled dermal-covering was arranged in -lines over the rays, (fig. 9, _b_;) and the scale, which assumes in the -fins, like the scales on the tail of the _Cheiracanthus_, though somewhat -more irregularly, a rectangular shape, is so considerably elongated, -that it assumes for its normal character as a scale, that of the joint -of an external ray. A similar arrangement of external protection takes -place in this genus over the bones of the head; the cartilaginous jaws -receive their osseous dermal covering, and, with these, the hyoid bones, -the opercules, and the cranium. And it is in these dermal plates, -which covered an interior skull, of which, save in one genus,—the -_Dipterus_,—not a vestige remains in any of the Old Red fishes thus -protected, that we first trace what seem to be the homologues of the -cranial bones of the osseous fishes,—at least their homologues so far as -the _cuticular_ can represent the _internal_. They appear for the first -time, not as modified spinous processes, broadened, as in the carapace -of the Chelonians, into _osseous_ plates, but like those _corneous_ -external plates of this order of reptiles, (known in one species as the -tortoise-shell of commerce,) the origin of which is purely cuticular, -and which evince so little correspondence in their divisions with the -sutures of the bones on which they rest, that they have been instanced, -in their relation to the joinings beneath, as admirable illustrations of -the _cross-banding_ of the mechanician. - -In the heads of the osseous fishes, the cranium proper, though -consisting, like the skulls of birds, reptiles, and mammals, of several -bones, exists from snout to nape, and from mastoid to mastoid, as -one unbroken box; whereas all the other bones of the head, such as -the maxillaries and intermaxillaries, the lower jaws, the opercular -appendages, the branchial arches, and the branchiostegous rays, -are connected but by muscle and ligament, and fall apart under the -putrefactive influences, or in the process of boiling. This unbroken box, -which consists, in the cod, of twenty-five bones, is the _homologue_ of -that cranial box of the Placoids which consists of one entire piece, and -the _homotype_, according to Oken, of the bodies and spinal processes of -four vertebræ; while the looser bones which drop away represent their -_ribs_. The upper surface of the box,—that extending from the nasal -bone to the nape,—is the only part over which a dermal buckler could -be laid, as it is the only part with which the external skin comes in -contact; and so it is between this upper surface and the cranial bucklers -of the earlier Ganoids that we have to institute comparisons. For it -is a curious fact, that, with the exception of the Old Red genera -_Acanthodus_, _Cheiracanthus_, and _Diplacanthus_,[14] all the Ganoids of -the period in which Ganoids first appear _have_ dermal bucklers placed -right over their true skulls, and that these, though as united in their -parts as the bones proper to the cranium in quadrupeds and fishes, are -composed of several pieces, furnished each with its independent centre -of ossification. The Dipterians, the Cœlacanths, the Cephalaspians, and -at least one genus placed rather doubtfully among the Acanths,—the genus -_Cheirolepis_,—all possessed cranial bucklers extending from the nape to -the snout, in which the plates, various, in the several genera, in form -and position, were fast _soldered_ together, though in every instance the -lines of suture were distinctly marked. - -[Illustration: Fig. 10. - -UPPER SURFACE OF CRANIUM OF COD.[15] - -A, _Occipital bone_. B, B, _Parietals_. C, C, C, _Superior frontal_. D, -D, _Anterior frontal_. I, _Nasal bone_. F, F, _Posterior frontals_. E, E, -_Mastoid bones_. 2, 2, _Eye orbits_. a, a, _Par-occipital bones_.] - -On each side of this external cranium the various cerebral plates, like -the corresponding cerebral _ribs_ in the osseous fishes, were free, at -least not anchylosed together; and some of their number unequivocally -performed, in part at least, the functions of two of these cerebral -ribs, viz. the upper and under jaws, with the functions of the opercular -appendages attached to the latter. In the cod, as in most other osseous -fishes, the upper portion of the cranium consists of thirteen bones, -which represent, however, only seven bones in the human skull,—the nasal, -the frontal, the two parietal, the occipital, and one-half the two -temporal bones. And whereas in man, and in most of the mammals, there are -four of these placed in the medial line,—the four which, according to the -assertors of the vertebral theory, form the spinal crests of the four -cerebral vertebræ,—in the cod there are but three. The super-occipital -bone, A, (fig. 10,) pieces on to the superior frontal, C, C, C; and the -parietals, B, B, which in the human subject from the upper and middle -portions of the cranial vault, are thrust out laterally and posteriorly, -and take their places, in a subordinate capacity, on each side of the -super-occipital. This is not an invariable arrangement among fishes;—in -the carp genus, for instance, the parietals assume their proper medial -place between the occipital and frontal bones; but so very general is -the displacement, that Professor Owen regards it as characteristic of -the great ichthyic class, and as the first example in the vertebrata, -reckoning from the lower forms upwards, of a sort of natural dislocation -among the bones,—“a modification,” he remarks, “which, sometimes -accompanied by great change of place, has tended most to obscure the -essential nature of parts, and their true relations to the archetype.” - -[Illustration: Fig. 11. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF COCCOSTEUS DECIPIENS. - -a, a, _Points of attachment to the cuirass which covered the upper part -of the creature’s body_.] - -Of all the cerebral bucklers of the first ganoid period, that which -best bears comparison with the cranial front of the cod is the buckler -of the _Coccosteus_, (fig. 11.) The general proportions of this portion -of the ancient Cephalaspian head differ very considerably from those of -the corresponding part in the modern cycloid one; but in their larger -divisions, the modern and the ancient answer bone to bone. Three osseous -plates in the _Coccosteus_, A, C, I, the homologues, apparently, of the -occipital, frontal, and nasal bones, range along the medial line. The -apparent homologues of the parietals, B, B, occupy the same position -of lateral displacement as the parietals of the cod and of so many -other fishes. The posterior frontals, F, and the anterior frontals, -D, also occupy places relatively the same, though the latter, which -are of greater proportional size, encroach much further, laterally and -posteriorly, on the superior frontal C, C, C, and sweep entirely round -the upper half of the eye orbits, 2, 2. The apparent homologue of the -mastoid bone, E, which also occupies its proper place, joins posteriorly -to a little plate, a, imperfectly separated in most specimens from the -parietal, but which seems to represent the par-occipital bone; and it is -a curious circumstance, that as, in many of the osseous fishes, it is to -these bones that the forks of the scapular arch are attached, they unite -in the _Coccosteus_ in furnishing, in like manner, a point of attachment -to the cuirass which covered the upper part of the creature’s body. Of -the true internal skull of the _Coccosteus_ there remains not a vestige -Like that of the sturgeon, it must have been a perishable cartilaginous -box. - -[Illustration: Fig. 12. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF OSTEOLEPIS.] - -In the _Osteolepis_,—an animal the whole of whose external head I have, -at an expense of some labor, and from the examination of many specimens, -been enabled to restore,—the cranial buckler (fig. 12) was divided in a -more arbitrary style; and we find that an element of uncertainty mingles -with our inferences regarding it, from the circumstance that some of its -lines of division, especially in the frontal half, were not real sutures, -but formed merely a kind of surface-tatooing, resorted to as if for -purposes of ornament. The cranial buckler of the _Asterolepis_ exhibited, -as I shall afterwards have occasion to show, a similar peculiarity;—both -had their pseudo-sutures, resembling those false joints introduced by the -architect into his rusticated basements, in order to impart the necessary -aspect of regularity to what is technically termed the coursing and -banding of the fabric. We can however, determine, notwithstanding the -induced obscurity that the buckler of the _Osteolepis_ was divided -transversely in the middle into two main parts or segments,—an occipital -part, C, and a frontal part, A; and that the occipital segment _seems_ -to include also the parietal and mastoid plates, and the frontal segment -to comprise, with its own proper plates, not only the nasal plate, but -also the representative of the anterior part of the vomer. All, however, -is obscure. But in our uncertainty regarding the homologies of the -divisions of this dermal buckler, let us not forget the homology of the -buckler itself, as a whole, with the upper surface of the true cranium -in the osseous fishes. Though frequently crushed and broken, it exists -in all the finer specimens of my collection as a symmetrically arranged -collocation of enamelled plates, as firmly united into one piece, -though they all indicate their distinct centres of ossification, as the -corresponding surface of the cranium in the carp or cod. The lateral -curves in the frontal part immediately opposite the lozenge-shaped plate -in the centre, show the position of the eyes, which were placed in this -genus, as in some of the carnivorous turtles, immediately over the -mouth,—an arrangement common to almost all the Ganoids of the Lower Old -Red Sandstone. The nearly semicircular termination of the buckler formed -the creature’s snout; and in the _Osteolepis_, as in the _Glyptolepis_ -and the _Diplopterus_, it was armed on the under side, like the vomer of -so many of the osseous fishes, with sharp teeth. Some of my specimens -indicate the nasal openings a little in advance of the eyes. The nape of -the creature was covered by three detached plates, (9, 9, 9, fig. 13,) -which rested upon anterior dorsal scales, and whose homologies, in the -osseous fishes, may possibly be found in those bones which, uniting -the shoulder-bones to the head, complete the scapular belt or ring. The -operculum we find represented by a single plate (8) which had attached to -it, as its sub-operculum, a plate (13) of nearly equal size, (see figs. -14 and 15.) Four small plates (2, 4, 5) formed the under curve of the -eyes, described in many of the osseous fishes by a chain of small bones -or ossicles; a considerably larger plate (6) occupied the place of the -preopercular bone; while the intermaxillaries had their representatives -in well-marked plates, (3, 3,) which, in the genera _Osteolepis_, -_Diplopterus_, and _Glyptolepis_, we find bristling so thickly with -teeth along their lower edges, as to remind us of the miniature saws -employed by the joiner in cutting out circular holes. These external -intermaxillaries did not, as in the perch or cod, meet in front of the -nasal bone and vomer, but joined on at the side, a little in advance of -the eyes, leaving the rounded termination of the cranial buckler, which, -like the intermaxillaries, was thickly fringed with teeth, to form, as -has been already said, the creature’s snout. - -[Illustration: Fig. 13. - -UPPER PART OF HEAD OF OSTEOLEPIS.] - -The under jaws (10)—strongly-marked bones in at least all the Dipterian -and Cœlacanth genera—we find represented externally by massy plates, -bearing, like those of the upper jaw, their range of teeth. As shown -in a well-preserved specimen of the lower jaw of _Holoptychius_, in -my possession, they were boxes of bone enclosing a bulky nucleus of -cartilage, which, in approaching towards the condyloid process, where -great strength was necessary, was thickly traversed by osseous cancelli, -and passed at the joint into true bone. It is in the under jaws of the -earlier Ganoids that we first detect a true union of the external with -the internal skeleton,—of the bony plates and teeth, which were _mere -plates and teeth of the skin_, with the osseous, granular walls which -enclosed at least all the larger pieces of the cartilaginous framework -of the interior. The jaws of the Rays and Sharks, formed of cartilage, -and fenced round on their sides and edges by their thin coverings of -polygonal, bony points, are wholly internal and skin-covered; whereas -the teeth, which rest on the soft cuticular integument right over them, -are as purely dermal as the surrounding shagreen. Teeth and shagreen -may, we find, be alike stripped off with the skin. Now, in the earlier -ganoidal jaw, two sides of the osseous box which it composed,—its outer -and under sides,—were mere dermal plates, representative of the skin -of the placoids, or of their shagreen; while the other two,—its upper -and inner sides,—seem to have been developments of the interior osseous -walls which covered the endo-skeletal cartilage. Nor is it unworthy of -notice, that the reptile fishes of the period had their _ichthyic_ teeth -ranged along the edge of an exterior _dermal_ plate which covered the -outer side of the jaw; whereas their _reptile_ teeth were planted on -a plate, apparently of interior development, which covered its upper -edge. It is further worthy of remark, that while the teeth of the dermal -plate,—themselves also dermal,—seem as if they had grown out of it, and -formed part of it,—just as the teeth of the Placoids grew out of the -skin on which they rest,—the _reptile_ teeth within rested in shallow -pits,—the first faint indications of true sockets. - -[Illustration: Fig. 14. - -UNDER PART OF HEAD OF OSTEOLEPIS.[16]] - -[Illustration: Fig. 15. - -HEAD OF OSTEOLEPIS, SEEN IN PROFILE.] - -That space included within the arch formed by the sweep of the under -jaws, which we find occupied in the osseous fishes by the hyoid bones and -the branchiostegous rays, was filled up externally, in the Dipterians -and Cœlacanths, and in at least two genera of Cephalaspians, by dermal -plates; in some genera, such as the _Diplopterus_, by three plates; in -others, such as the _Holoptychius_ and _Glyptolepis_, by two; and in -the _Asterolepis_, as we shall afterwards see, by but a single plate. -In the _Osteolepis_ these plates were increased to five in number, by -the little plates 14, 14, (fig. 14,) which, however, may have been also -present in the _Diplopterus_, though my specimens fail to show them. The -general arrangement was of much elegance,—an elegance, however, which, -in the accompanying restorations, the dislocation of the free plates, -drawn apart to indicate their detached character, somewhat tends to -obscure. But the position of the eyes must have imparted to the animal -a sinister reptile-like aspect. The profile, (fig. 15,) the result, not -of a chance-drawn outline, arbitrarily filled up, but produced by the -careful arrangement in their proper places of actually existing plates, -serves to show how perfectly the dermo-skeletal parts of the creature -were developed. Some of the animals with which we are best acquainted, if -represented by but their cuticular skeleton, would appear simply as sets -of hoofs and horns. Even the tortoise or pengolin would present about the -head and limbs their gaps and missing portions; but the dermo-skeleton -of the _Osteolepis_, composed of solid bone, and burnished with enamel, -exhibited the outline of the fish entire, and, with the exception of -the eye, the filling up of all its external parts. Presenting outside, -in its original state, no fragment of skin or membrane, and with even -its most flexible organs sheathed in enamelled bone, the _Osteolepis_ -must have very much resembled a fish carved in ivory; and, though so -effectually covered, it would have appeared, from the circumstance, that -it wore almost all its bone outside, as naked as the human teeth. - -[Illustration: Fig. 16. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF DIPLOPTERUS.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 17. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF DIPLOPTERUS.] - -The cranial buckler of the _Diplopterus_ (fig. 16) somewhat resembled -that of its fellow-dipterian the _Osteolepis_, but exhibited greater -elegance of outline. My first perfect specimen, which I owe to the -kindness of Mr. John Miller, of Thurso, an intelligent geologist of the -north, reminded me, as it glittered in jet-black enamel on its ground -of pale gray, of those Roman cuirasses which one sees in old prints, -impaled on stakes, as the central objects in warlike trophies formed -of spoils taken in battle. The rounded snout represented the chest and -shoulders, the middle portion the waist, and the expansion at the nape -the piece of dress attached, which, like the Highland kilt, fell adown -the thighs. The addition of a fragment of a sleeve, suspended a little -over the eye orbits, 2, 2, seemed all that was necessary in order to -render the resemblance complete. But as I disinterred the buried edges of -the specimen with a graver, the form, though it grew still more elegant, -became less that of the ancient coat of armor; the snout expanded into -a semicircle; the eye orbits gradually deepened; and the entire fossil -became not particularly like any thing but the thing it once was,—the -cranial buckler of the _Diplopterus_. The print (fig. 17) exhibits its -true form. It consists of two main divisions, occipital (A) and frontal, -(C, fig. 16;) and in each of these we find a pair of smaller divisions, -with what seem to be indications of yet further division, marked, not by -lines, but by dots; though I have hitherto failed to determine whether -the plates which these last indicate possess their independent centres of -ossification. Not unfrequently, however, has the comparative anatomist -to seek the analogues of two bones in one; nor is it at least _more_ -difficult to trace in the faint divisions of the cranial buckler of the -_Diplopterus_, the homologues of the occipital, frontal, parietal, -mastoid, and nasal bones, than to recognize the representatives of the -carpals of the middle and ring finger in man, in the cannon bone of the -fore leg of the ox. I may mention in passing, that the little central -plate of the frontal division, (1, fig. 16,) which so nearly corresponds -with that of the _Osteolepis_, occurred, though with considerable -variations of form and homology, and some slight difference of position, -in all the Ganoids of the Old Red Sandstone whose craniums were covered -with an osseous buckler, and that its place was always either immediately -between the eyes or a very little over them. Its never-failing recurrence -shows that it must have had _some_ meaning, though it may be difficult -to say what. In the _Coccosteus_ it takes the form of the male dovetail, -which united the nasal plate or snout to the plate representative -of the superior frontal. Of the cartilaginous box which formed the -interior skull of either _Osteolepis_, or _Diplopterus_, or, with but -one exception, of the interior skulls of any of their contemporaries, no -trace, as I have said, has yet been detected. The solitary exception in -the case is, however, one of singular interest. - -[Illustration: Fig. 18. - -a. _Palatal dart-head._ - -b. _Group of palatal teeth._] - -In a collection of miscellaneous fragments sent me by Mr. Dick from the -rocks of Thurso, I detected patches of palatal teeth ranged in nearly the -quadratures of circles, and which radiated outwards from the rectangular -angle or centre, (fig. 18, _b_.) And with the patches there occurred -plates exactly resembling the barbed head of a dart, (_a_,) with which -I had been previously acquainted, though I had failed to determine their -character or place. The excellent state of keeping of some of Mr. Dick’s -specimens now enabled me to trace the patches with the dart-head, and -several other plates, to a curious piece of palatal mechanism, ranged -along the base of a ganoid cranium, covered externally by a brightly -enamelled buckler, and to ascertain the order in which patches and plates -occurred. And then, though not without some labor, I succeeded in tracing -the buckler with which they were associated to the _Dipterus_,—a fish -which, though it has engaged the attention of both Cuvier and Agassiz, -has not yet been adequately restored. It is on an ill-preserved Orkney -specimen of the cranial buckler of this Ganoid that the ichthyologist has -founded his genus _Polyphractus_; while groupes of its palatal teeth from -the Old Red of Russia he refers to a supposed Placoid,—the _Ctenodus_. -But in the earlier stages of palæontological research, mistakes of this -character are wholly unavoidable. The palæontologist who did avoid them -would be either very unobservant, or at once very rash and very fortunate -in his guesses. If, ere an entire skeleton of the _Ichthyosaurus_ -had turned up, there had been found in different localities, in the -Liasic formation, a beak like that of a porpoise, teeth like that of -a crocodile, a head and sternum like that of a lizard, paddles like -those of a cetacean, and vertebræ like those of a fish, it would have -been greatly more judicious, and more in accordance with the existing -analogies, to have erected, provisionally at least, places specifically, -or even generically separated, in which to range the separate pieces, -than to hold that they had all united in one anomalous genus; though such -was actually the fact. And Agassiz, in erecting three distinct genera -out of the fragments of a single genus, has in reality acted at once -more prudently and more intelligently than if he had avoided the error -by rashly uniting parts which in their separate state indicate no tie of -connection. - -[Illustration: Fig. 19. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF DIPTERUS.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 20. - -BASE OF CRANIUM OF DIPTERUS.] - -The cranial buckler of the _Dipterus_ (fig. 19) was, like that of the -_Diplopterus_, of great beauty. In some of the finer specimens, we find -the enamel ornately tatooed, within the more strongly-marked divisions, -by delicately traced lines, waved and bent, as if upon the principle -of Hogarth; and though the lateral plates are numerous and small, and -defy the homologies, we may trace in those of the central line, from the -snout to the nape, what seem to be the representatives of the frontal, -parietal, and occipital bones,—the parietals ranging, as in the skull -of the carp and in that of most of the mammals, in their proper place -in the medial line. But the under surface of the cranium, armed, as on -the upper surface, with plates of bone, exhibited an arrangement still -more peculiar, (fig. 20.) Its rectangular patches of palatal teeth, its -curious dart-like bone, placed immediately behind these, and attached, -as the dart-head is attached to the handle, to a broad lozenge-shaped -plate, with two strong osseous processes projecting on either side, forms -such a _tout ensemble_ as is unique among fishes. Even here, however, -there may be traced at least a shade of homological resemblance to the -bones which form the base of the osseous skull. The single lozenge-shaped -plate, (A,) with its dart-head, occupies the place of the basi-occipital -bone; the posterior portion of the vomer seems represented by a strong -bony ridge, extending towards the snout; two separate bones, each bearing -one of the angular patches of teeth, corresponds to the sphenoid bone -and its alæ; and attached laterally to each of these there is the strong -projecting bone, on which the lower jaw appears to have hinged, and -which apparently represents the lower part of the temporal bone. Not less -singular was the form of the creature’s under jaw, (fig. 21.) I know no -other fish-jaw, whether of the recent or the extinct races, that might -be so readily mistaken for that of a quadruped. It exhibits not only the -condyloid, but also the coronoid processes; and, save that it broadens -on its upper edges, where in mammals the grinders are placed, so as to -furnish field enough for angular patches of teeth, which correspond with -the angular patches in the palate, it might be regarded, found detached, -as at least a reptilian, if not mammalian, bone. The disposition of -the palatal teeth of the _Dipterus_ will scarce fail to remind the -mechanist of the style of grooving resorted to in the formation of -mill-stones for the grinding of flour; nor is it wholly improbable that, -in correspondence with the rotatory motion of the stones to which the -grooving is specially adapted, jaws so hinged may have possessed some -such power of lateral motion as that exemplified by the human subject in -the use of the molar teeth. - -[Illustration: Fig. 21. - -UNDER JAW OF DIPTERUS.] - -The protection afforded by the osseous covering of both the upper and -under surface of the cranium of this ichthyolite has resulted, in -several instances, in the preservation, though always in a greatly -compressed state, of the cranium itself, and the consequent exhibition -of two very important cranial cavities, the brain-pan proper, and the -passage through which the spinal cord passed into the brain. In the -sturgeon the brain occupies nearly the middle of the head; and there -is a considerable part of the occipital region traversed by the spine -in a curved channel, which, seen in profile, appears wide at the nape, -but considerably narrower where it enters the brain-pan, and altogether -very much resembling the interior of a miniature hunting-horn. And such -exactly was the arrangement of the greater cavities in the head of the -_Dipterus_. The portion of the cranium which was overlaid by what may be -regarded as the occipital plate was traversed by a cavity shaped like a -Lilliputian bugle-horn; while the hollow in which the brain was lodged -lay under the two parietal plates, and the little elliptical plate in -the centre. The accompanying print, (fig. 22,) though of but slight -show, may be regarded by the reader with some little interest, as a not -inadequate representation of the most ancient brain-pan on which human -eye has yet looked,—as, in short, the type of cell in which, myriads of -ages ago, in at least one genus, that mysterious substance was lodged, on -whose place and development so very much in the scheme of creation was -destined to depend. The specimen from which the figure is taken was laid -open laterally by chance exposure to the waves on the shores of Thurso, -another specimen, cut longitudinally by the saw of the lapidary, yields a -similar section, but greatly more compressed in the cavities; on which, -of course, as unsupported hollows, the compression to which the entire -cranium had been exposed chiefly acted. When the top and bottom of a -box are violently forced together, it is the empty space which the box -encloses that is annihilated in consequence of the violence. - -[Illustration: Fig. 22. - -LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF HEAD OF DIPTERUS] - -It is deserving of notice, that the analogies of the cranial cavities -in this ancient Ganoid should point so directly on the cranial cavities -of that special Ganoid of the present time which unites a true skull of -cartilage to a dermal skull of osseous plates,—a circumstance strongly -corroborative of the general evidence, negative and positive, on which -I have concluded that the true skulls of the first Ganoids were also -cartilaginous. It is further worthy of observation, that in all the -sections of the cranium of _Dipterus_ which I have yet examined, the -internal line is continuous, as in the Placoids, from nape to snout, -and that the true skull presents no trace of those cerebral vertebræ of -which skulls are regarded by Oken and his disciples as developments. -Historically at least, the progress of the ichthyic head seems to have -been a progress from simple cartilaginous boxes to cartilaginous boxes -covered with osseous plates, that performed the functions whether active -or passive, of internal bones; and then from external plates to the -interior bones which the plates had previously represented, and whose -proper work they had done. - -The principle which rendered it necessary that the divisions which exist -in the dermal skulls of the first Ganoids should so closely correspond -with the divisions which exist in the internal skulls of the osseous -fishes of a greatly later period, does not seem to lie far from the -surface. Of the solid parts of the ichthyic head, a certain set of -pieces afford protection to the brain and cerebral nerves, and to some -of the organs of the senses, such as those of seeing and hearing; while -another certain set of pieces constitute the framework through which an -important class of functions, manducatory and respiratory, are performed. -The protective bones of merely passive function are fixed, whereas the -bones of active function, such as the jaws, the osseous framework of the -opercules, and the hyoid bones, are to the necessary extent free, _i. -e._ capable of independent motion. Of course, the detached character -necessary to the free cerebral bones would be equally necessary in -cerebral plates united dermally to the pieces of the cartilaginous -framework, which performed in the ancient fish the functions of these -free bones. And hence jaw plates, opercular plates, and hyoid plates, -whose homological relation with recent jaws and opercular and hyoid -bones cannot be mistaken. They were operative in performing identical -mechanical functions, and had to exist, in consequence, in identical -mechanical conditions. And an equally simple, though somewhat different -principle, seems to have regulated the divisions of the fixed cranial -bucklers of the Old Red Ganoids, and to have determined their homologies -with the fixed cerebral bones of the osseous fishes. - -These cranial bucklers, extending from nape to snout, protected the -exposed upper surface of the cartilaginous skull, and conformed to it in -shape, as a helmet conforms to the shape of the head, or a breast-plate -to the shape of the chest. And as the cartilaginous heads resembled in -general outline the osseous ones, the buckler which covered their upper -surface resembled in general outline the upper surface of the osseous -skull. It was in no case entirely a flat plate; but in every species -rounded over the snout and in most species at the sides; and so, in -order that its characteristic proportions might be preserved throughout -the various stages of growth in the head which it covered, it had to be -formed from several distinct centres of ossification, and to extend in -area around the edges of the plates originated from these. The workman -finds no difficulty in adding to the size of a piece of straight wall, -whether by heightening or lengthening it; but he cannot add to the size -of a dome or arch, without first taking it down, and then erecting it -anew on a larger scale. In the domes and arches of the animal kingdom, -the problem is solved by building them up of distinct pieces, few or -many, according to the demands of the figure which they compose, and -rendering these pieces capable of increase along their edges. It is on -this principle that the Cystidea, the Echinidæ, the Chelonian carapace -and plastron, and the skulls of the osseous Vertebrata, are constructed. -It is also the principle on which the cranial bucklers of the ancient -Ganoids were formed.[17] And from the general resemblance in figure of -these bucklers to the upper surface of the osseous skull, the separate -parts necessary for the building up of the one were anticipated, by many -ages, in the building up of the other; just as we find external arches -of stone which were erected two thousand years ago, constructed on the -same principle, and relatively of the same parts, as internal arches of -brick built in the present age. Doubtless, however, with this mechanical -necessity for correspondence of parts in the formation of corresponding -erections, there may have mingled that regard for typical resemblance -which seems so marked a characteristic of the _style_, if I may so -express myself, in which the Divine Architect gives expression to his -ideas. The external osseous buckler He divided after the general pattern -which was to be exemplified, in latter times, in the divisions of the -internal osseous skull; as if in illustration of that “ideal exemplar” -which dwelt in his mind from eternity, and on the palpable existence -of which sober science has based deductions identical in their scope -and bearing with some of the sublimest doctrines of the theologian. -“The recognition,” says Professor Owen, “of an ideal exemplar for the -vertebrated animals, proves that the knowledge of such a being as man -existed before man appeared; for the Divine mind which planned the -archetype also foreknew all its modifications. The archetypal idea was -manifested in the flesh, under divers such modifications, upon this -planet, long prior to the existence of those animal species that actually -exemplify it.” - -But while we find place in that geological history in which every -character is an organism, for the “ideal exemplar” of Professor Owen, -we find _no_ place in it for the vertebræ-developed skull of Professor -Oken. The true genealogy of the head runs in an entirely different line. -The nerves of the cerebral senses did not, we find, originate cerebral -vertebræ, seeing that the heads of the first and second geologic periods -had their cerebral nerves, but _not_ their cerebral vertebræ; and that -what are regarded as cerebral-vertebræ appear for the first time, not in -the early fishes, but in the reptiles of the Coal formation. The line of -succession through the fish, indicated by the Continental assertor of -the development hypothesis, is a line cut off. All the existing evidence -conspires to show that the placoid heads of the Silurian system were, -like the placoid heads of the recent period, mere cartilaginous boxes; -and that in the succeeding system there existed ganoidal heads, that -to the internal cartilaginous box added external plates of bone, the -homologues, apparently,—so far at least as the merely cuticular could -be representative of the endo-skeletal,—of the opercular, maxillary, -frontal, and occipital bones in the osseous fishes of a long posterior -period,—fishes that were not ushered upon the scene until after the -appearance of the reptile in its highest forms and of even the marsupial -quadruped. - - - - -THE ASTEROLEPIS, ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT. - - -With the reader, if he has accompanied me thus far, I shall now pass -on to the consideration of the remains of the _Asterolepis_. Our -preliminary acquaintance with the cerebral peculiarities of a few of -its less gigantic contemporaries will be found of use in enabling us to -determine regarding a class of somewhat resembling peculiarities which -characterized this hugest Ganoid of the Old Red Sandstone. - -[Illustration: Fig. 24. - -_Dermal tubercles of Asterolepis_ - -(Mag. two diameters.)] - -The head of the _Asterolepis_, like the heads of all the other -Cœlacanths, and of all the Dipterians, was covered with osseous -plates,—its body with osseous scales; and, as I have already had occasion -to mention, it is from the star-like tubercles by which the cerebral -plates were fretted that M. Eichwald bestowed on the creature its -generic name. Agassiz has even erected species on certain varieties in -the pattern of the stars, as exhibited on detached fragments; but I am -far from being satisfied that we are to seek in their peculiarities of -style the characters by which the several species were distinguished. -The stellar form of the tubercle seems to have been its normal or most -perfect form as it was also, with certain modifications, that of the -tubercle of the _Coccosteus_ and _Pterichthys_; but its development as -a complete star was comparatively rare: in most cases the tubercles -existed without the rays,—frequently in the insulated pap-like shape, -but not rarely confluent, or of an elongated or bent form; and when to -these the characteristic rays were added, the stars produced were of a -rather eccentric order,—stars somewhat resembling the shadows of stars -seen in water. Individual specimens have already been found, on which, if -we recognize the form of the tubercle as a specific character, several -species might be erected. The accompanying wood-cut (fig. 24) represents, -from a Thurso specimen, what seems to be the true normal pattern of -these cerebral carvings. Seen in profile (_b_) the tubercles resemble -little hillocks, perforated at their base by single lines of thickly-set -caves; while seen from above, (_a_,) the narrow piers of bone by which -the caves are divided take the form of rays. The reader will scarce fail -to recognise in this print the coral _Monticularia_ of Lamarck, or to -detect, in at least the profile, the peculiarity which suggested the name. - -[Illustration: Fig. 25. - -SCALES OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(Nat. size.) - -a. _Inner surface of scale._ - -b. _Exterior surface._] - -[Illustration: Fig. 26. - -PORTION OF CARVED SURFACE OF SCALE. - -(Mag. four diameters.)] - -The scales which covered the creature’s body (fig. 25) were, in -proportion to its size, considerably smaller and thinner than those -of the _Holoptychius_, which, however, they greatly resemble in their -general style of sculpture. Each, on the lower part of its exposed -field, was, we see, fretted by longitudinal anastomosing ridges, which, -in the upper part, break into detached angular tubercles, placed with -the apex downwards, and hollowed, leaf-like, in the centre; while that -covered portion which was overlaid by the scales immediately above we -find thickly pitted by microscopic hollows, that give to this part of the -field, viewed under a tolerably high magnifying power, a honeycombed -appearance. The central and lower parts of the interior surface of the -scale (_a_) are in most of the specimens irregularly roughened; while a -broad, smooth band, which runs along the top and sides, and seems to have -furnished the line of attachment to the creature’s body, is comparatively -smooth. The exterior carvings, though they demand the assistance of -the lens to see them aright, are of singular elegance and beauty; as -perhaps the accompanying wood-cut, (fig. 26,) which gives a magnified -view of a portion of the scale immediately above (_b_) from the middle -of the honeycombed field on the right side, to where the anastomosing -ridges bend gracefully in their descent, may in some degree serve to -show. I have seen a richly inlaid coat of mail, which was once worn by -the puissant Charles the Fifth; but its elaborate carvings, though they -belonged to the age of Benvenuto Cellini, were rude and unfinished, -compared with those which fretted the armor of the _Asterolepis_. - -[Illustration: Fig. 27. - -CRANIAL BUCKLER OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One fifth nat. size, linear.)] - -The creature’s cranial buckler, which was of great size and strength, -might well be mistaken for the carapace of some Chelonian fish of no -inconsiderable bulk. The cranial bucklers of the larger Dipterians -were ample enough to have covered the corresponding part in the skulls -of our middle-sized market-fish, such as the haddock and whiting; the -buckler of a _Coccosteus_ of the extreme size would have covered, if -a little altered in shape, the upper surface of the skull of a cod, -but the cranial buckler of _Asterolepis_, from which the accompanying -wood-cut was taken, (fig. 27,) would have considerably more than covered -the corresponding part in the skull of a large horse; and I have at -least one specimen in my collection which would have fully covered -the front skull of an elephant. In the smaller specimens, the buckler -somewhat resembles a laborer’s shovel divested of its handle, and sorely -rust-eaten along its lower or cutting edge. It consisted of plates, -connected at the edges by flat squamous sutures, or, as a joiner might -perhaps say, _glued_ together in _bevelled_ joints. And in consequence -of this arrangement, the same plates which seem broad on the exterior -surface appear comparatively narrow on the interior one, and _vice -versa_; the occipital plate, (_a_,) which, running from the nape along -the centre of the buckler, occupies so considerable a space on its outer -surface, exhibits inside a superficies reduced at least one half. Like -nine tenths of its contemporaries, the _Asterolepis_ exhibits the little -central plate between the eyes; but the eye orbits, unlike those of the -_Coccosteus_, and of all the Dipterian genera, which were half-scooped -out of the cranial buckler, half-encircled by detached plates, were -placed completely within the field of the buckler,—a circumstance in -which they resemble the eye orbits of the _Pterichthys_, and, among -existing fish, those of the sea-wolf. The characteristic is also a -distinctive one in Cuvier’s second family of the Acanthopterygii,—the -“fishes with hard cheeks.” A deep line immediately over the eyes, which, -however, indicated no suture, but seems to have been merely ornamental, -forms a sort of rudely tatooed eyebrow; the marginal lines parallel to -the lateral edges of the buckler were also mere tatooings; but all the -others indicated joints which, though more or less anchylosed, had a -real existence. So flat was the surface, that the edge of a ruler rests -upon it, in my several specimens, both lengthwise and across; but it was -traversed by two flat ridges, which, stretching from the corners of the -latero-posterior, _i. e._ parietal, plates, (_b_, _b_,) converged at the -little plate between the eyes, while along the centre of the depressed -angle which they formed, a third ridge, equally flat with the others, ran -towards the same point of convergence from the nape. The three ridges, -when strongly relieved by a slant light, resemble not inadequately an -impression, on a large scale, of the Queen’s broad arrow. - -[Illustration: Fig. 28. - -INNER SURFACE OF CRANIAL BUCKLER OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One fifth nat. size, linear.)] - -The inner surface of the cranial buckler of _Asterolepis_, (fig. -28,)—that which rested on the cartilaginous box which formed the -creature’s interior skull,—stands out in bolder relief from the stone -than its outer surface, and forms a more picturesque object. Like the -inner surfaces of the bucklers of _Coccosteus_ and _Pterichthys_, but -much more thickly than these, it was traversed by minute channelled -markings, somewhat resembling those striæ which may be detected in the -flatter bones of the ordinary fishes, and which seem in these to be -mere interstices between the osseous fibres. And in the plates, as in -the bones, they radiate from the centres of ossification, which are -comparatively dense and massy, towards the thinner overlapping edges. -These radiating lines are equally well marked in the cerebral bones of -the human fœtus. The three converging ridges on the outer surface we -find on the inner surface also,—the lateral ones a little bent in the -middle, but so directly opposite those outside, that the thickening of -the buckler which takes place along their line is at least as much a -consequence of their inner as of their outer elevation over the general -platform. A fourth bar ran transversely along the nape, and formed the -cross beam on which the others rested; for the three longitudinal ridges -may be properly regarded as three strong beams, which, extending from -the transverse beam at the nape to the front, where they converged like -the spokes of a wheel at the nave, gave to the cranial roof a degree of -support of which, from its great flatness, it may have stood in need. In -cranial bucklers in which the average thickness of the plates does not -exceed three _eighth_ parts of an inch, their thickness in the centre of -the ridges exceeds three _quarters_. The head of the largest crocodile -of the existing period is defended by an armature greatly less strong -than that worn by the _Asterolepis_ of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. Why -this ancient Ganoid should have been so ponderously helmed we can but -doubtfully guess; we only know, that when nature arms her soldiery, there -are assailants to be resisted and a state of war to be maintained. The -posterior central plate, the homologue apparently of the occipital bone, -was curiously carved into an ornate massive leaf, like one of the larger -leaves of a Corinthian capital, and terminated beneath, where the stem -should have been, in a strong osseous knob, fashioned like a pike head. -Two plates immediately over it, the homologues of the superior frontal -bone, with the little nasal plate which, perched atop in the middle, -lay between the creature’s eyes, resembled the head and breast in the -female figure, at least not less closely than those of the “lady in the -lobster;” the posterior frontal plates in which the outer and nether -half of the eye orbits were hollowed formed a pair of sweeping wings, -and thus in the centre of the buckler we are presented with the figure -of an angel, robed and winged, and of which the large sculptured leaf -forms the body, traced in a style in no degree more rude than we might -expect to see exemplified on the lichen-encrusted shield of some ancient -tombstone of that House of Avenel which bore as its arms the effigies -of the Spectre Lady. Children have a peculiar knack in detecting such -resemblances; and the discovery of the angel in the cranium of the -_Asterolepis_ I owe to one of mine. - -[Illustration: Fig. 29. - -PLATE OF CRANIAL BUCKLER OF ASTEROLEPIS.] - -It is on this inner side of the cranial buckler, where there are no such -pseudo-joinings indicated as on the external surface, that the homologies -of the plates of which it is composed can be best traced. It might be -well, however, ere setting one’s self to the work of comparison, to -examine the skulls of a few of the osseous fishes of our coast, and to -mark how very considerably they differ from one another in their lines of -suture and their general form. The cerebral divisions of the conger-eel, -for instance, are very unlike those of the haddock or whiting; and the -sutures in the head of the gurnard are dissimilarly arranged from those -in the head of the perch. And after tracing the general type in the -more anomalous forms, and finding, with Cuvier, that in even these the -“skull consists of the same bones, though much subdivided, as the skulls -of the other vertebrata,” we will be the better qualified for grappling -with the not greater anomalies which occur in the cranial buckler of the -_Asterolepis_. The occipital plate, _A_, _a_, _a_, (fig. 29,) occupies -its ordinary place opposite the centre of the nape; the two parietals, B, -B, rest beside it in their usual ichthyic position of displacement; the -superior frontal we find existing, as in the young of many animals, in -two pieces, C, C; the nasal plate I, placed immediately in advance of it, -is flanked, as in the cod, by the anterior frontals, D, D; the posterior -frontals, F, F, which, when viewed as in the print, from beneath, seem of -considerable size, and describe laterally and posteriorly about one half -the eye orbits, have their area on the exterior surface greatly reduced -by the overriding squamose sutures of the plates to which they join; and -lastly, two of these overlying plates, E, E,—which, occurring in the -line of the lateral bar or beam, are of great strength and thickness, -and lie for two thirds of their length along the parietals, and for the -remaining third along the superior frontals,—represent the mastoid bones. -Such, so far as I have been yet able to read the cranial buckler of the -_Asterolepis_, seem to be the homologies of its component plates. - -[Illustration: Fig. 30. - -PORTION OF UNDER JAW OF ASTEROLEPIS, (OUTER SIDE.) - -(One half nat. size.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 31. - -PORTION OF UNDER JAW OF ASTEROLEPIS, (INNER SIDE.) - -(One half nat. size.)] - -There were no parts of the animal more remarkable than its jaws. The -under jaws,—for the nether maxillary consisted, in this fish, as in -the placoid fishes, and in the quadrupeds generally, of two pieces -joined in the middle,—were, like those of the _Holoptychius_, boxes -of bone, which enclosed central masses of cartilage. The outer and -under sides were thickly covered with the characteristic star-like -tubercles; and along the upper margin or lip there ran a thickly-set row -of small broadly-based teeth, planted as directly on the edge of the -exterior plate as iron spikes on the upper edge of a gate (fig. 30.) -Mr. Parkinson expresses some wonder, in his work on fossils, that, in -a fine ichthyolite in the British Museum, not only the _teeth_ should -have been preserved, but also the _lips_; but we now know enough of -the construction of the ancient Ganoids to cease wondering. The _lips_ -were formed of as solid bone as the teeth themselves, and had as fair a -chance of being preserved entire; just as the metallic rim of a _cogged_ -wheel has as fair a chance of being preserved as the metallic cogs that -project from it. Immediately behind the front row,—in which the teeth -present the ordinary ichthyic appearance,—there ran a thinly-set row of -huge _reptile_ teeth, based on an interior platform of bone, which formed -the top of the cartilage-enclosing box composing the jaw. These were at -once bent outwards and twisted laterally, somewhat like nails that have -been drawn out of wood by the claw of a carpenter’s hammer, and bent -awry with the wrench, (fig. 31.) They were furrowed longitudinally from -point to base by minute thickly-set striæ and were furnished laterally, -in most of the specimens though not in all, with two sharp cutting -edges. The reptile had as yet no existence in creation; but we see its -future coming symbolized in the dentition of this ancient Ganoid: it, -as it were, shows us the _crocodile_ lying entrenched behind the fish. -The interior structure of these reptile teeth is very remarkable. In the -longitudinal section we find numerous cancelli, ranged lengthwise along -the outer edges, but much crossed, net-like, within,—greatly more open -towards the base than at the point,—and giving place in the centre to a -hollow space, occasionally traversed by a few slim osseous partitions. -In the transverse section these cancelli are found to radiate from -the open centre towards the circumference, like the spokes of a wheel -from the nave; and each spoke seems as if, like Aaron’s rod, it had -become instinct with vegetative life, and had sprouted into branch and -blossom. Seen in a microscope of limited field, that takes in, as in -the accompanying print, (fig. 32,) not more than a fourth part of the -section, the appearance presented is that of a well-trained wall tree. -And hence the generic name _Dendrodus_, given by Professor Owen to teeth -found detached in the deposits of Moray, when the creatures to which they -had belonged were still unknown,—a name, however, which will, I suspect, -be found synonymous rather with that of a family than of a genus; for -so far as I have yet examined, I find that the dendrodic or tree-like -tooth, was in at least the Old Red Sandstone, a characteristic of all -the Cœlacanth family. I may mention, however, as a curious subject of -inquiry, that the Cœlacanths of the Coal Measures seem to have had their -reptile teeth formed of pure ivory,—a substance, which I have not yet -detected among the reptile-fish of the Old Red. Towards the base of the -reptile teeth of _Asterolepis_, the interstices between the branches -greatly widen, as in the branches of a tree in winter divested of its -foliage, (fig. 33, _c_;) the texture also opens towards the base in the -_fish_-teeth, outside, in which, however, the pattern in the transverse -section is greatly less complex and ornate than that which the reptile -teeth exhibits. When cut across near the point, they appear each as a -thick ring, (_b_,) traversed by lines that radiate towards the centre; -when cut across about half way down, they somewhat resemble, seen under -a high magnifying power those cast-iron wheels on which the engineer -mounts his railway carriages, (_a_.) In the longitudinal section their -line of junction with the jaw is marked by numerous openings, but by no -line of division, and they appear as thickly dotted by what were once -canaliculi, or life points, as any portion of the dermal bone on which -they rest. - -[Illustration: Fig. 32. - -PORTION OF TRANSVERSE SECTION OF REPTILE TOOTH OF ASTEROLEPIS - -a. _Nat. size._ - -b. _Mag. twelve diameters._] - -[Illustration: Fig. 33. - -A. _Section of Jaw of Asterolepis._ - -c. _Reptile tooth as shown in section._ - -a, b, & c. _Row of ichthyic teeth in dermal plate of jaw._ - -B. _Magnified representatives of ichthyic teeth, a and b, in_ A.] - -It seems truly wonderful, when one considers it, to what minute and -obscure ramifications that variety of pattern which nature so loves to -maintain is found to descend. It descends in the fishes, both recent -and extinct, to even the microscopic structure of their teeth; and -we find, in consequence, not less variety of figure in the sliced -fragments of the teeth of the ichthyolites of a single formation, than -in the carved blocks of an extensive calico print-yard. Each _species_ -has its own distinct pattern, as if, in all the individuals of which -it consisted, the same block had been employed to stamp it; and each -_genus_ its own general _type_ of pattern, as if the same radical idea, -variously altered and modified, had been wrought upon in all. In the -_Dendrodic_ (Cœlacanth?) family, for instance, it is the radical type, -that from a central nave there should radiate, spoke-like, a number -of arborescent branches; but in the several genera and species of the -family, the branches belong, if I may so express myself, to different -shrubs, and present dissimilar outlines. It has appeared to me, that -at least a _presumption_ against the transmutation of species might be -based on those inherent peculiarities of structure which are thus found -to pervade the entire texture of the framework of animals. If we find -erections differing from one another merely in external form, we have -no difficulty in conceiving how, by additions and alterations, they -might be brought to exhibit a perfect uniformity of plan and aspect: -_transmutation_,—_development_,—_progression_,—(if one may use such -terms,)—seem possible in such circumstances. But if the buildings differ -from each other, not only in external form, but also in every brick and -beam, bolt and nail, no mere scheme of external alteration could ever -induce a real resemblance. Every brick would have to be taken down, and -every beam and bolt removed. The problem could not be wrought by the -remodelling of an old house: the only mode of solving it would be by the -erection of a new one. - -[Illustration: Fig. 34. - -MAXILLARY BONE? - -(One fourth nat. size, linear.)] - -Of the upper maxillary bones of the _Asterolepis_, I only know that -a considerable fragment of one of the pieces, recognized as such by -Agassiz, has been found in the neighborhood of Thurso by Mr. Dick, -unaccompanied, however, by any evidence respecting its place or function. -It exhibits none of the characteristic tubercles of the dermal bones, -and no appearance of teeth; but is simply a long bent bone, resembling -somewhat less than the half of an ancient bow of steel or horn,—such -a bow as that which Ulysses bended in the presence of the suitors. -By some of the Russian geologists this bone was at first regarded as -a portion of the arm or wing of some gigantic _Pterichthys_. In the -accompanying print (fig. 34) I have borrowed the general outline from -that of a specimen of Professor Asmus, of which a cast may be seen in -the British Museum; while the shaded portion represents the fragment -found by Mr. Dick. The intermaxillary bones, like the dermal plates of -the lower jaw, were studded by star-like tubercles, and bristled thickly -along their lower edges with the ichthyic teeth, flanked by teeth of -the reptilian character. The opercules of the animal consisted, as in -the sturgeon, of single plates (fig. 35) of great massiveness and size, -thickly tubercled outside, without trace of joint or suture, and marked -on their under surface by channelled lines, that radiate, as in the other -plates, from the centre of ossification. That space along the nape which -intervened between the opercules, was occupied, as in the _Dipterus_ and -_Diplopterus_, by three plates, which covered rather the anterior portion -of the body than the posterior portion of the head, and which, in the -restoration of _Osteolepis_, (fig. 13,) appear as the plates, 9, 9, 9. I -can say scarce any thing regarding the lateral plates which lay between -the intermaxillaries and the cranial buckler, and which exist in the -_Osteolepis_, fig. 13, as the plates 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7; nor do I know how -the snout terminated, save that in a very imperfect specimen it exhibits, -as in the _Diplopterus_ and _Osteolepis_, a rounded outline, and was set -with teeth. - -[Illustration: Fig. 35. - -INNER SURFACE OF OPERCULUM OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One fifth nat. size, linear.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 36. - -HYOID PLATE. - -(One ninth nat. size, linear.)] - -That space comprised within the arch of the lower jaws, in which the -hyoid bone and branchiostegous rays of the osseous fishes occur, was -filled by a single plate of great size and strength, and of singular -form, (fig. 36;) and to this plate, existing as a steep ridge running -along the centre of the interior surface, and thickening into a massy -knob at the anterior termination, that nail-shaped organism, which I have -described as one of the most characteristic bones of the _Asterolepis_, -belonged. In the _Osteolepis_, the space corresponding to that occupied -by this hyoid plate was filled, as shown in fig. 14, by five plates of -not inelegant form; and the divisions of the arch resembled those of -a small Gothic window, in which the single central mullion parts into -two branches atop. In the _Holoptychius_ and _Glyptolepis_ there were -but two plates; for the central mullion, _i. e._ line of division, -did not branch atop; and in the _Asterolepis_, where there was no -line of division, the strong nail-like bone occupied the place of the -central mullion. The hyoidal armature of the latter fish was strongest -in the line in which the others were weakest. Each of the five hyoid -plates of the _Osteolepis_, or of the two plates of the _Glyptolepis_ -or _Holoptychius_, had its own centre of ossification; and in the -single plate of _Asterolepis_, the centre of ossification, as shown by -the radiations of the fibre, was the nail-head. This head, placed in -immediate contact with the strong boxes of bone which composed the under -jaw, just where their central joining occurred, seems to have lent them -a considerable degree of support, which at such a juncture may have been -not unnecessary. In some of the nail-heads, belonging, it is probable, to -a different species of _Asterolepis_ from that in which the nail figured -in page 7, and the plate in the opposite page, occurred,—for its general -form is different, (fig. 37,)—there appear well-marked ligamentary -impressions closely resembling that little spongy pit in the head of the -human thigh-bone to which what is termed the round ligament is attached. -The entire hyoid-plate, viewed on its outer side, resembles in form the -hyoid-bone,—or cartilage rather,—of the spotted dog-fish, (_Scyllium -stellare_;) but its area was at least a hundred times more extensive -than in the largest _Scyllium_, and, like all the dermal plates of the -_Asterolepis_, it was thickly fretted by the characteristic tubercles. -In the Ray, as in the Sharks, the piece of thin cartilage of which this -plate seems the homologue, is a flat, semi-transparent disk; and there -is no part of the animal in which the progress of those bony molecules -which encrust the internal framework may be more distinctly traced, as if -in the act of creeping over what they cover, in slim threads or shooting -points,—and much resembling new ice creeping in a frosty evening over the -surface of a pool. - -[Illustration: Fig. 37. - -NAIL-LIKE BONE OF HYOID PLATE. - -(One half nat. size.)] - -That suite of shoulder-bones that in the osseous fishes forms the belt -or frame on which the opercules rest, and furnishes the base of the -pectorals, was represented in the _Asterolepis_, as in the sturgeon, by a -ring of strong osseous plates, which, in one of the two species of which -trace is to be found among the rocks of Thurso, were curiously fretted -on their external surfaces, and in the other species comparatively -smooth. The largest, or coracoidian plate of the ring, as it occurs in -the more ornate species, (fig. 38,) might be readily enough mistaken, -when seen with only its surface exposed for the ichthyodorulite of -some large fish, allied, mayhap, to the _Gyracanthus formosus_ of the -Coal Measures; but when detached from the stone, the hollow form and -peculiar striæ of the inferior surface serve to establish its true -character as a dermal plate. The diagonal furrowings which traversed -it, as the twisted flutings traverse a Gothic column moulded after the -type of the Apprentice Pillar in Roslin chapel, seem to have underlaid -the edge of the opercule; at least I find a similar arrangement in the -shoulder-plates of a large species of _Diplopterus_, which are deeply -grooved and furrowed where the opercule rested, as if with the design of -keeping up a communication between the branchiæ and the external element, -even when the gill-cover was pressed closely down upon them. And,—as in -these shoulder-plates of the _Diplopterus_ the furrows yield their place -beyond the edge of the opercule to the punctulated enamel common to the -outer surface of all the creature’s external plates and scales,—we find -them yielding their place, in the shoulder-plates of the _Asterolepis_, -to the starred tubercles. - -[Illustration: Fig. 38. - -SHOULDER (_i. e._ CORACOID?) PLATE OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One third nat. size, linear.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 39. - -DERMAL BONES OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One third nat. size, linear.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 40. - -INTERNAL BONES OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One half nat. size, linear.)] - -A few detached bones, that bear on their outer surfaces the dermal -markings, must have belonged to that angular-shaped portion of the head -which intervened between the cranial buckler and the intermaxillary bone; -but the key for assigning to them their proper place is still to find; -and I suspect that no amount of skill on the part of the comparative -anatomist will ever qualify him to complete the work of restoration -without it. I have submitted to the reader the cranial bucklers of -_five_ several genera of the ganoids of the Old Red Sandstone; but no -amount of study bestowed on these would enable even the most skilful -ichthyologist to restore a _sixth_; nor is the lateral area of the head, -which was, I find, variously occupied in each genus, less difficult to -restore than the buckler which surmounted it. Two of the more entire of -these dermal bones I have figured (fig. 39, _a_ and _b_) in the hope -of assisting future inquirers, who, were they to pick up all the other -plates, might yet be unable, lacking the figured ones, to complete the -whole. The curiously-shaped plate _a_, represented in its various sides -by the figures 1, 2, 3, is of an acutely angular form in the transverse -section, (the external surface, 1, forming an angle which varies from -thirty to forty-five degrees with the base, 3;) and as it lay, it is -probable when in its original place, immediately under the edge of the -cranial buckler, it may have served to commence the line of deflection -from the flat top of the head to the steep descent of the sides, just -as what are technically termed the _spur_-stones in a gable-head serve -to commence the line of deflection from the vertical outline of the -wall to the inclined line of the roof, or as the spring-stones of an -arch serve to commence the curve. A few internal bones in my possession -are curious, but exceedingly puzzling. The bone _a_, fig. 40, which -resembles a rib, or branchiostegous ray, of one of the ordinary fishes, -formed apparently part of that osseous _style_ which in fishes such as -the haddock and cod we find attached to the suite of shoulder-bones, and -which, according to Cuvier, is the analogue of the coracoidian bone, -and, according to Professor Owen, the analogue of the clavicle. Fig. -_b_ is a mere fragment, broken at both ends, but exhibiting, in a state -of good keeping, lateral expansions, like those of an ancient halbert. -Fig. _c_, 41, which is also a fragment, though a more considerable -one, bears in its thicker and straighter edge a groove like that of an -ichthyodorulite, which, however, the bone itself in no degree resembles. -Fig. _d_ is a flat bone, of a type common in the skeleton of fishes, but -which, in mammals, we find exemplified in but the scapulars. It seems, -like these, to have furnished the base to which some suite of movable -bones was articulated,—in all likelihood that proportion of the carnal -bonelets of the pectoral fins which are attached in the osseous fishes -to its apparent homologue, the radius. Fig. _e_, a slim light bone, -which narrows and thickens in the centre, and flattens and broadens at -each end, was probably a scapula or shoulder-blade,—a bone which in -most fishes _splices_ on, as a sailor would say, by squamose jointings, -to the coracoidian bone at the one end, and the super-scapular bone at -the other. As indicated by its size, it must have belonged to a small -individual: it is, however, twice as long, and about six times as bulky, -as the scapula of a large cod. - -[Illustration: Fig. 41. - -INTERNAL BONES OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One third nat. size, linear.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 42. - -ISCHIUM OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One half nat. size, linear.)] - -Of the bone represented in fig. 42, I have determined, from a Cromarty -specimen, the place and use: it formed the interior base to which -one of the ventral fins was attached. In all fishes the bones of the -hinder extremities are inadequately represented: in none do we find the -pelvic arch complete; and to that nether portion of it which we do find -represented, and which Professor Owen regards as the homologue of the -_os ischium_ or hip-bone, the homologues of the metatarsal and toe-bones -are attached, to the exclusion of the bones of the thigh and leg. In the -Abdominales,—fishes such as the salmon and carp,—that have the ventrals -placed behind the abdomen, in the position analogous to that in which -the hinder legs of the reptiles and mammals occur, the ischiatic bones -generally exist as flat triangular plates, with their heads either -turned _inwards_ and downwards, as in the herring, or _outwards_ and -downwards, as in the pike; whereas in some of the cartilaginous fishes, -such as the Rays and Sharks, they exist as an undivided cartilaginous -band, stretched transversely from ventral to ventral. And such, with -but an upward direction, appears to have been their position in the -_Asterolepis_. They seem to have united at the narrow neck A, over the -middle of the lower portion of the abdomen; and to the notches of the -flat expansion B,—notches which exactly resemble those of the immensely -developed carpal bones of the Ray,—five metatarsal bones were attached, -from which the fin expanded. It is interesting to find the number in this -ancient representative of the vertebrata restricted to five,—a number -greatly exceeded in most of the existing fishes, but which is the true -normal number of the vertebrate sub-kingdom as shown in all the higher -examples such as man, the _quadrumana_, and in most of the _carnaria_. -The form of this bone somewhat resembles that of the analogous bone in -those fishes, such as the perch and gurnard, cod and haddock, which have -their ventrals suspended to the scapular belt; but its position in the -Cromarty specimen, and that of the ventrals in the various specimens of -the Cœlacanth family in which their place is still shown, forbids the -supposition that _it_ was so suspended,—a circumstance in keeping with -all the existing geological evidence on the subject, which agrees in -indicating, that of the low type of fishes that have, monster-like, their -_feet_ attached to their necks, the Old Red Sandstone does not afford a -trace. This inferior type, now by far the most prevalent in the ichthyic -division of the animal kingdom, does not seem to have been introduced -until near the close of the Secondary period, long after the fish had -been degraded from its primal place in the fore front of creation. In -one of my specimens a few fragments of the rays are preserved, (fig. 43, -_b_.) They are about the eighth part of an inch in diameter: depressed -in some cases in the center, as if, over the internal hollow formed by -the decay of the cartilaginous centre, the bony crust of which they are -composed had given way; and, like the rays of the thornback, they are -thickened at the joints, and at the processes by which they were attached -to the ischiatic base. It may be proper, I should here state, that of -some of the internal bones figured above I have no better evidence that -they belonged to the _Asterolepis_, than that they occur in the same -beds with the dermal plates which bear the characteristic star-like -markings,—that they are of very considerable size,—and that they formed -no part of the known fishes of the formation. - -[Illustration: Fig. 43. - -a. _Single joint of ray of Thornback._ - -b. _Single joint of ray of Asterolepis._] - -[Illustration: Fig. 44. - -COPROLITES OF ASTEROLEPIS. - -(Nat. Size.[18])] - -On exactly the same grounds I infer that certain large coprolites of -common occurrence in the Thurso flagstones, which contain the broken -scales of Dipterians, and exhibit a curiously twisted form, (fig. 44,) -also belonged to the _Asterolepis_; and from these, that the creature -was carnivorous in its habits,—an inference which the character of -its teeth fully corroborates; and farther, that, like the sharks and -rays, and some of the extinct Enaliosaurs, it possessed the spiral -disposition of intestine. Paley, in his chapter on the compensatory -contrivances palpable in the structure of various animals, refers to a -peculiar substitutory provision which occurs in a certain amphibious -animal described in the Memoirs of the French Academy. “The reader -will remember,” he says, “what we have already observed concerning the -_intestinal_ canal,—that its length, so many times exceeding that of the -body, promotes the extraction of the chyle from the aliment, by giving -room for the lacteal vessels to act upon it through a greater space. -This long intestine, whenever it occurs, is in other animals disposed in -the abdomen from side to side, in returning folds. But in the animal now -under our notice, the matter is managed otherwise. The same intention is -mechanically effectuated, but by a mechanism of a different kind. The -animal of which I speak is an amphibious quadruped, which our authors -call the Alopecias or sea-fox. The intestine is straight from one end to -the other but in this straight, and consequently short intestine, is a -winding, cork-screw, spiral passage, through which the food, not without -several circumvolutions, and, in fact, by a long route, is conducted to -its exit. Here the shortness of the gut is _compensated_ by the obliquity -of the perforation.” This structure of intestine, which all the true -Placoids possess, and at least the Sturiones among existing Ganoids, -seems to have been an exceedingly common one during both the Palæozoic -and Secondary periods. It has left its impress on all the better -preserved coprolites of the Coal Measures, so abundant in the shales of -Newhaven and Burdie House, and on those of the Lias and Chalk. It seems -to be equally a characteristic of well nigh all the bulkier coprolites -of the Lower Old Red Sandstone.[19] In these, however, it manifests -a peculiar trait, which I have failed to detect in any of the recent -fishes; nor have I yet seen it indicated, in at least the same degree, by -the Carboniferous or Secondary coprolitic remains. In the bowels which -moulded the coprolites of Lyme-Regis, of the Chalk, and of the Newhaven -and Granton beds, a single screw must have winded within the cylindrical -tube, as a turnpike stair winds within its hollow shaft; and such also is -the arrangement in the existing Sharks and Rays; whereas the bowels which -moulded the coprolites of the Lower Old Red Sandstone must have been -traversed by triple or quadruple screws laid closely together, as we find -the stalk of an old-fashioned wine-glass traversed by its thickly-set -spiral lines of thread-like china. And so, while on the surface of both -the Secondary and Carboniferous coprolites there is space between the -screw-like lines for numerous cross markings that correspond to the -thickly set veiny branches which traverse the sides of the recent placoid -bowel, the entire surface of the Lower Old Red coprolites is traversed -by the spiral markings. Is there nothing strange in the fact, that after -the lapse of mayhap millions of years,—nay, it is possible, millions -of ages,—we should be thus able to detect at once general resemblance -and special dissimilarity in even the most perishable parts of the most -ancient of the Ganoids? - -I must advert, in passing, to a peculiarity exemplified in the state of -keeping of the bones of this ancient Ganoid, in at least the deposits -of Orkney and Caithness. The original animal matter has been converted -into a dark-colored bitumen, which in some places, where the remains -lie thick, pervades the crevices of the rocks, and has not unfrequently -been mistaken for coal. In its more solid state it can hardly be -distinguished, when used in sealing a letter,—a purpose which it serves -indifferently well,—from black wax of the ordinary quality; when more -fluid, it adheres scarce less strongly to the hands than the coal-tar of -our gas-works and dock-yards. Underneath a specimen of _Asterolepis_, -first pointed out to me in its bed among the Thurso rocks by Mr. Dick, -and which, at my request, he afterwards raised and sent me to Edinburgh, -packed up in a box, there lay a quantity of thick tar, which stuck as -fast to my fingers, on lifting out the pieces of rock, as if I had laid -hold of the planking of a newly tarred yawl. What had been once the -nerves, muscles, and blood of this ancient Ganoid still lay under its -bones, and reminded me of the appearance presented by the remains of a -poor suicide, whose solitary grave, dug in a sandy bank in the north -of Scotland, had been laid open by the encroachments of a river. The -skeleton, with pieces of the dress still wrapped round it, lay at length -along the section; and, for a full yard beneath, the white dry sand was -consolidated into a dark-colored pitchy mass, by the altered animal -matter which had escaped from it, percolating downwards, in the process -of decay. - -In consequence of the curious chemical change which has thus taken place -in the animal juices of the _Asterolepis_, its remains often occur in -a state of beautiful preservation: the pervading bitumen, greatly more -conservative in its effects than the oils and gums of an old Egyptian -undertaker, has maintained, in their original integrity, every scale, -plate, and bone. They may have been much broken ere they were first -committed to the keeping of the rock, or in disentangling them from -its rigid embrace; but they have, we find, caught no harm when under -its care. Ere the skeleton of the Bruce, disinterred after the lapse of -five centuries, was recommitted to the tomb, such measures were taken -to secure its preservation, that, were it to be again disinterred, even -after as many more centuries had passed, it might be found retaining -unbroken its gigantic proportions. There was molten pitch poured over -the bones, in a state of sufficient fluidity to permeate all the pores, -and fill up the central hollows, and which, soon hardening around -them, formed a bituminous matrix, in which they may lie unchanged for -a thousand years. Now, exactly such was the process to which nature -resorted with these gigantic skeletons of the Old Red Sandstone. Like the -bones of the Bruce, they are bones steeped in pitch; and so thoroughly -is every pore and hollow still occupied, that, when cast into the fire, -they flame like torches. Though black as jet, they still retain, too, -in a considerable degree, the peculiar _qualities_ of the original -substance. The late Mr. George Sanderson of Edinburgh, one of the most -ingenious lapidaries in the kingdom, and a thoroughly intelligent man, -made several preparations for me, for microscopic examination, from -the teeth and bones; and though they were by far the oldest vertebrate -remains he had ever seen, they exhibited, he informed me, in the -working, more of the characteristics of recent teeth and bone than any -other fossils he had ever operated upon. Recent bone when in the course -of being reduced on the wheel to the degree of thinness necessary to -secure transparency, is apt, under the heat induced by the friction, to -acquire a springy elasticity, and to start up from the glass slip to -which it has been cemented; whereas bone in the fossil state usually -lies as passive, in such circumstances, as the stone which envelopes -it. Mr. Sanderson was, however, surprised to find that the bone of the -_Asterolepis_ still retained its elasticity, and was scarce less liable, -when heated, to start from the glass,—a peculiarity through which he at -first lost several preparations. I have seen a human bone that had for -ages been partially embedded in a mass of adipocere, partially enveloped -in the common mould of a churchyard, exhibit two very different styles -of keeping. In the adipocere it was as fresh and green as if it had -been divested of the integuments only a few weeks previous; whereas the -portion which projected into the mould had become brittle and porous, and -presented the ordinary appearance of an old churchyard bone. And what the -adipocere had done for the human bone in this case, seems to have been -done for the bones of the _Asterolepis_ by the animal bitumen. - -[Illustration: Fig. 45. - -HYOID PLATE OF THURSO ASTEROLEPIS.[20] - -(One fifth the nat. size, linear.)] - -The size of the _Asterolepis_ must, in the larger specimens, have been -very great. In all those ganoidal fishes of the Old Red Sandstone that -had the head covered with osseous plates, we find that the cranial -buckler bore a certain definite proportion,—various in the several genera -and species,—to the length of the body. The drawing-master still teaches -his pupils to regulate the proportions of the human figure by the seven -head-lengths which it contains; and perhaps shows them how an otherwise -meritorious draftsman,[21] much employed half an age ago in drawing for -the wood-engraver, used to render his figures squat and ungraceful by -making them a head too short. Now, those ancient Ganoids which possessed -a cranial buckler may, we find, be also measured by head-lengths. Thus, -in the _Coccosteus decipiens_, the length of the cranial buckler from -nape to snout equalled one fifth the entire length of the creature -from snout to tail. The entire length of the _Glyptolepis_ was equal to -about five one half times that of its cranial buckler. The _Pterichthys_ -was formed in nearly the same proportions. The _Diplopterus_ was fully -seven times the length of its buckler: and the _Osteolepis_ from six and -a half to seven. In all the cranial bucklers of the _Asterolepis_ yet -found, the snout is wanting. The very fine specimen figured in page 99 -(fig. 28) terminates abruptly at the little plate between the eyes, the -specimen figured in page 98 (fig. 27) terminates at the upper line of -the eye. The terminal portion which formed the snout is wanting in both, -and we thus lack the measure, or _module_, as the architect might say, -by which the proportions of the rest of the creature were regulated. -We can, however, very nearly approximate to it. A hyoid plate in my -collection (fig. 45) is, I find, so exactly proportioned in size to the -cranial buckler, (fig. 28,) that it might have belonged to the same -individual; and by fitting it in its proper place, and then making the -necessary allowance for the breadth of the nether jaw, which swept two -thirds around it, and was surmounted by the snout, we ascertain that -the buckler, when entire, must have been, as nearly as may be, a foot -in length. If the _Asterolepis_ was formed in the proportions of the -_Coccosteus_, the buckler (fig. 28) must have belonged to an individual -five feet in length; if in the proportions of the _Pterichthys_ or -_Glyptolepis_, to an individual five and a half feet in length; and -if in those of the _Diplopterus_ or _Osteolepis_, to an individual of -from six and a half to seven feet in length. Now I find that the hyoid -plate can be inscribed—such is its form—in a semicircle, of which the -nail-shaped ridge in the middle (if we strike off a minute portion of the -sharp point, usually wanting in detached specimens) forms very nearly -the radius, and of which the diameter equals the breadth of the cranial -buckler, along a line drawn across at a distance from the nape, equal -to two thirds of the distance between the nape and the eyes. Thus, the -largest diameter of a hyoid plate which belonged to a cranial buckler a -foot in length is, I find, equal to seven one quarter inches, while the -length of its nape somewhat exceeds three five eighth inches. The nail of -the Stromness specimen measures five and a half inches. It must have run -along a hyoid plate eleven inches in transverse breadth, and have been -associated with a cranial buckler eighteen one eighth inches in length; -and the _Asterolepis_ to which it belonged must have measured from snout -to tail, if formed, as it probably was, in the proportions of its brother -Cœlacanth the _Glyptolepis_, eight feet three inches; and if in those -of the _Diplopterus_, from nine feet nine to ten feet six inches. This -oldest of Scottish fish—this earliest-born of the Ganoids yet known—was -at least as bulky as a large porpoise. - -It was small, however, compared with specimens of the _Asterolepis_ -found elsewhere. The hyoid plate figured in page 110, (fig. 36,)—a -Thurso specimen which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Dick,—measures -nearly fourteen inches, and the cranial buckler of the same individual, -fifteen one fourth inches, in breadth. The latter, when entire, must -have measured twenty-three one half inches in length; and the fish to -which it belonged, if formed in the proportions of the _Glyptolepis_, -ten feet six inches; and if in those of the _Diplopterus_, from twelve -feet five to thirteen feet eight inches in length. Did the shield still -exist in its original state as a buckler of tough, enamel-crusted bone, -it might be converted into a Highland target, nearly broad enough to -cover the ample chest of a Rob Roy or Allan M’Aulay, and strong enough to -dash aside the keenest broadsword. Another hyoid plate found by Mr. Dick -measures sixteen one half inches in breadth; and a cast in the British -Museum, from one of the Russian specimens of Professor Asmus, (fig. 46,) -twenty-four inches. The individual to which this last plate belonged -must, if built in the shorter proportions, have measured eighteen, and if -in the longer, twenty-three feet in length. The two hyoid plates of the -specimen of _Holoptychius_ in the British Museum measure but four and a -half inches along that transverse line in which the Russian _Asterolepis_ -measures two feet, and the largest Thurso specimen sixteen inches and a -half. The maxillary bone of a cod-fish two and a half feet from snout to -tail measures three inches in length. One of the Russian maxillary bones -in the possession of Professor Asmus measures in length twenty-eight -inches. And that space circumscribed by the sweep of the lower jaw -which it took, in the Russian specimen, a hyoid plate twenty-four -inches in breadth to fill, could be filled in the two-and-a-half-feet -cod by a plate whose breadth equalled but an inch and a half. Thus, in -the not unimportant circumstance of size, the most ancient Ganoids yet -known, instead of taking their places, agreeably to the demands of the -development hypothesis, among the sprats, sticklebacks, and minnows of -their class, took their place among its huge basking sharks, gigantic -sturgeons, and bulky sword-fishes. They were giants, not dwarfs. - -[Illustration: Fig. 46. - -HYOID PLATE OF RUSSIAN ASTEROLEPIS. - -(One twelfth the natural size, linear.)] - -But what of their organization? Were they fishes low or high in the -scale? On this head we can, of course, determine merely by the analogies -which their structure exhibits to that of fishes of the existing -period; and these point in three several directions;—in two of the -number, directly on genera of the high Ganoid order; and in the third, -on the still higher Placoids and Enaliosaurs. No trace of vertebræ -has yet been found; and so we infer—lodging, however, a precautionary -protest, as the evidence is purely negative, and therefore it some -degree inconclusive—that the vertebral column of the _Asterolepis_ -was, like that of the sturgeon, cartilaginous. Respecting its external -covering, we positively know, as has been already shown, that, like -the _Lepidosteus_ of America and the _Polypterus_ of the Nile, it was -composed of strong plates and scales of solid bone; and, regarding its -dentition, that, as in these last genera, and even more decidedly than -in these, it was of the mixed ichthyic-reptilian character,—an outer row -of thickly-set fish-teeth being backed by an inner row of thinly-set -reptile-teeth. And its form of coprolite indicates the spiral disposition -of intestine common to the Rays and Sharks of the existing period, and -of the Ichthyosauri of the Secondary ages. Instead of being, as the -development hypothesis would require, a fish low in its organization, -it seems to have ranged on the level of the highest ichthyic-reptilian -families ever called into existence. Had an intelligent being, ignorant -of what was going on upon earth during the week of creation, visited -Eden on the morning of the sixth day, he would have found in it many -of the inferior animals, but no trace of man. Had he returned again in -the evening, he would have seen, installed in the office of keepers of -the garden, and ruling with no tyrant sway as the humble monarchs of -its brute inhabitants, two mature human creatures, perfect in their -organization, and arrived at the full stature of their race. The entire -evidence regarding them, in the absence of all such information as that -imparted to Adam by Milton’s angel, would amount simply to this, that -in the morning man _was not_, and that in the evening he _was_. There, -of course, could not exist, in the circumstances, a single appearance -to sanction the belief that the two human creatures whom he saw walking -together among the trees at sunset had been “developed from infusorial -points,” not created mature. The evidence would, on the contrary, -lie all the other way. And in no degree does the geologic testimony -respecting the earliest Ganoids differ from what, in the supposed case, -would be the testimony of Eden regarding the earliest men. Up to a -certain point in the geologic scale we find that the Ganoids _are not_; -and when they at length make their appearance upon the stage, they enter -large in their stature and high in their organization. - - - - -FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS—UPPER AND LOWER. THEIR RECENT HISTORY, -ORDER, AND SIZE. - - -But the system of the Old Red Sandstone represents the _second_, not -the _first_, great period of the world’s history. There was a preceding -period at least equally extended, perhaps greatly more so, represented -by the Upper and Lower Silurian formations. And what is the testimony -of this morning period of organic existence, in which, so far as can -yet be shown, vitality, in the planet which man inhabits, and of whose -history or productions he knows anything, was first associated with -matter? May not the development hypothesis find a standing in the system -representative of this earliest age of creation, which it fails to find -in the system of the Old Red Sandstone? - -It has been confidently asserted, not merely that it _may_, but that it -_does_. Ever since the publication, in 1839, of Sir Roderick Murchison’s -great work on the Silurian System, it had been known that the remains -of fishes occur in a bed of the “Ludlow Rock,”—one of the most modern -deposits of the _Upper_ Silurian division; and subsequent discoveries -both in England and America, had shown that even the _base_ of this -division has its ichthyic organisms. But for year after year, the -lower half of the system,—a division more than three thousand feet in -thickness,—had failed, though there were hands and eyes busy among its -deposits, to yield any vertebrate remains. During the earlier half of -the first great period of organic existence, though the polyparia, -radiata, articulata, and mollusca, existed, as their remains testified, -by myriads, fish had, it was held, not yet entered upon the scene; and -the assertors of the development theory founded largely on the presumed -fact of their absence. “It is still customary,” says the author of the -“Vestiges of Creation,” in his volume of “Explanations,” “to speak of -the earliest fauna as one of an elevated kind. When rigidly examined, it -is not found to be so. IN THE FIRST PLACE, IT CONTAINS NO FISH. There -were seas supporting crustacean and molluscan life, but _utterly devoid -of a class of tenants who seem able to live in every example of that -element which supports meaner creatures_. This single fact, that only -invertebrated animals now lived, is surely in itself a strong proof that, -in the course of nature, _time_ was necessary for the creation of the -superior creatures. And if so, it undoubtedly is a powerful evidence of -such a theory of development as that which I have presented. If not, let -me hear an equally plausible reason for the great and amazing fact, that -seas were for numberless ages destitute of fish. I fix my opponents down -to the consideration of this fact, so that no diversion respecting high -molluscs shall avail them.” And how is this bold challenge to be met? - -Most directly, and after a fashion that at once discomfits the challenger. - -It might be rationally enough argued in the case, that the author of -the “Vestiges” was building greatly more on a piece of purely negative -evidence,—the presumed absence of fish from the Lower Silurian -formations,—than purely negative evidence is, from its nature as such, -suited to bear; that only a very few years had passed since it was known -that vertebrate remains occurred in the _Upper_ Silurian, and only a -few more since they had been detected in the Old Red Sandstone; nay, -that within the present century their frequent occurrence in even the -Coal Measures was scarce suspected; and that, as his argument, had it -been founded twelve years ago on the supposed absence of fishes from -the Upper Silurian, or twenty years ago on the supposed absence of -fishes from the Old Red Sandstone, would have been quite as plausible -in reference to its negative data then as in reference to its negative -data now, so it might now be quite as erroneous as it assuredly would -have been then. Or it might be urged, that the fact of the absence of -fish from the Lower Silurians, even were it really a fact, would be in -no degree less reconcilable with the theory of creation by direct act, -than with the hypothesis of gradual development. The fact that Adam -did not exist during the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth days -of the introductory week of Scripture narrative, furnishes no argument -whatever against the fact of his creation on the sixth day. And the -remark would of course equally apply to the non-existence of fishes -during the Lower Silurian period, had they been really non-existent -at the time, and to their sudden appearance in that of the Upper. But -the objection admits of a greatly more conclusive answer. “I fix my -opponents down,” says the author of the “Vestiges,” “to the consideration -of this fact,” _i. e._ that of the absence of fishes from the earliest -fossiliferous formations. And I, in turn, fix you down, I reply, to the -consideration of the antagonist fact, not negative, but positive, and -now, in the course of geological discovery, fully established, that -fishes were _not_ absent from the earliest fossiliferous formations. -From none of the great geological formations were fishes absent,—not -even from the formations of the Cambrian division. “The Lower Silurian,” -says Sir Roderick Murchison, in a communication with which, in 1847, he -honored the writer of these chapters, “is no longer to be viewed as an -invertebrate period; for the _Onchus_ (species not yet decided) has been -found in the Llandeilo Flags and in the Lower Silurian rocks of Bala. -In one respect I am gratified by the discovery; for the form is so very -like that of the _Onchus Murchisoni_ of the Upper Ludlow rock, that it -is clear the Silurian system is one great natural-history series, as is -proved, indeed, by all its other organic remains.” It may be mentioned -further, in addition to this interesting statement, that the Bala spine -was detected in its calcareous matrix by the geologists of the Government -Survey, and described to Sir Roderick as that of an _Onchus_, by a very -competent authority in such matters,—Professor Edward Forbes, and that -the annunciation of the existence of spines of fishes in the Llandeilo -Flags we owe to one of the most cautious and practised geologists of the -present age,—Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge. - -So much for the _fact_ of the existence of vertebrata in the Lower -Silurian formations, and the _argument_ founded on their presumed -absence. Let me now refer—their presence being determined—to the tests -of size and organization. Were these Silurian fishes of a bulk so -inconsiderable as in any degree to sanction the belief that they had -been developed shortly before from microscopic points? Or were they of a -structure so low as to render it probable that their development was at -the time incomplete? Were they, in other words, the embryos and fœtuses -of their class? or did they, on the contrary, rank with the higher and -larger fishes of the present time? - -It is of importance that not only the direct _bearing_, but also the -actual _amount_, of the evidence in this case, should be fairly stated. -So far as it extends, the testimony is clear; but it does not extend -far. All the vertebrate remains yet detected in the Silurian System, -if we except the debris of the Upper Ludlow bone-bed, might be sent -through the Post-Office in a box scarcely twice the size of a copy of -the “Vestiges.” The naturalist of an exploring party, who, in crossing -some unknown lake, had looked down over the side of his canoe, and seen -a few fish gliding through the obscure depths of the water, would be but -indifferently qualified, from what he had witnessed, to write a history -of _all_ its fish. Nor, were the some six or eight individuals of which -he had caught a glimpse to be of small size, would it be legitimate for -him to infer that only small-sized fish lived in the lake; though, were -there to be some two or three large ones among them, he might safely -affirm the contrary. Now, the evidence regarding the fishes of the -Silurian formation very much resembles what that of the naturalist would -be, in the supposed case, regarding the fishes of the unexplored lake; -with, however, this difference, that as the deposits of the ancient -system in which they occur have been examined for years in various parts -of the world, and all its characteristic organisms, save the ichthyic -ones, found in great abundance and fine keeping, we may conclude that -the fish of the period were comparatively few. The palæontologist, so -far as the question of number is involved, is in the circumstances, not -of the naturalist who has only once crossed the unknown lake, but of the -angler who, day after day, casts his line into some inland sea abounding -in shell-fish and crustacea, and, after the lapse of months, can scarce -detect a nibble, and, after the lapse of years, can reckon up all the -fish which he has caught as considerably under a score. The existence -of this great division of the animal kingdom, like that of the earlier -reptiles during the Carboniferous period, did not form a prominent -characteristic of those ages of the earth’s history in which they began -to be. - -The earliest discovered vertebral remains of the system—those of the -Upper Ludlow rock—were found in digging the foundations of a house at -Ludford, on the confines of Shropshire, and submitted, in 1838, by -Sir Roderick Murchison to Agassiz, through the late Dr. Malcolmson of -Madras. I used at the time to correspond on geological subjects with Dr. -Malcolmson,—an accomplished geologist and a good man, too early lost to -science and his friends,—and still remember the interest which attached -on this occasion to his communication bearing the Paris post-mark, -from which I learned for the first time that there existed ichthyic -fragments greatly older than even the ichthyolites of the Lower Old Red -Sandstone, and which made me acquainted with Agassiz’s earliest formed -decision regarding them. Though existing in an exceedingly fragmentary -condition,—for the materials of the thin dark-colored layer in which -they had lain seemed as if they had been triturated in a mortar,—the -ichthyologist succeeded in erecting them into six genera; though it may -be very possible,—as some of these were formed for the reception of -detached spines, and others for the reception of detached teeth,—that, -as in the case of _Dipterus_ and _Asterolepis_, the fragments of but -a single genus may have been multiplied into two genera or more. And -minute scale-like markings, which mingled with the general mass, and -were at first regarded as the impressions of real scales, have been -since recognized as of the same character with the scale-like markings -of the _Seraphim_ of Forfarshire, a huge crustacean. Even admitting, -however, that a set of teeth and spines, with perhaps the shagreen points -represented in page 54, fig. 2, _b_, in addition, may have all belonged -to but a single species of fish, there seem to be materials enough, -among the remains found, for the erection of two species more. And we -have evidence that at least two of the three kinds were fishes of the -Placoid order, (_Onchus Murchisoni_ and _Onchus tenuistriatus_,) and—as -the supposed scales must be given up—no good evidence that the other kind -was not. The ichthyic remains of the Silurian System next discovered -were first introduced to the notice of geologists by Professor Phillips, -at the meeting of the British Association in 1842.[22] They occurred, -he stated, in a quarry near Hales End, at the base of the Upper Ludlow -rock, immediately over the Aymestry Limestone, and were so exceedingly -diminutive, that they appeared to the naked eye as mere discolored spots; -but resolved under the microscope into scattered groupes of minute -spines, like those of the _Cheiracanthus_, with what seemed to be still -more minute _scales_, or, perhaps,—what in such circumstances could -scarce be distinguished from scales,—shagreen points of the scale-like -type. The next ichthyic organism detected in the Silurian rocks occurred -in the Wenlock Limestone, a considerably lower and older deposit, and was -first described in the “Edinburgh Review” for 1845 by a vigorous writer -and masterly geologist, (generally understood to be Professor Sedgwick of -Cambridge,) as “a characteristic portion of a fish undoubtedly belonging -to the Cestraciont family of the Placoid order.” In the “American -Journal of Science” for 1846, Professor Silliman figured, from a work -of the States’ Surveyors, the defensive spine of a Placoid found in the -Onondago Limestone of New York,—a rock which occurs near the base of the -Upper Silurian System, as developed in the western world;[23] and in -the same passage he made reference to a mutilated spine detected in a -still lower American deposit,—the Oriskany Sandstone. In the Geological -Journal for 1847, it was announced by Professor Sedgwick, that he had -found “_defences of fishes_” in the Upper Llandeilo Flags, and by Sir -Roderick Murchison, that the “defence of an _Onchus_” had been detected -by the geologists of the Government survey, in the Limestone near Bala. -Sir Roderick referred in the same number to the remains of a fish found -by Professor Phillips in the Wenlock Shale. And such, up to the present -time, is the actual _amount_ of the evidence with which we have to deal, -and the dates of its piecemeal production. Let us next consider the -_order of its occurrence in the geologic scale_. - - { +-----+ - { Upper | | Fish, 1838, - { Ludlow. | 1 | (Murchison.) - { | | Fish, 1842, - { +-----+ (Phillips.) - { Aymestry | | - { Limestone. | 2 | - { +-----+ - UPPER SILURIAN ROCKS. { Lower | | - { Ludlow. | 3 | - { +-----+ - { Wenlock | | Fish, 1845, - { Limestone. | 4 | (Sedgwick.) - { | | Fish, 1846, - { +-----+ (Silliman.) - { Wenlock | 5 | Fish, 1847. - { Shale. | | (Phillips.) - +-----+ - ----- - { +-----+ - { Caradoc | | - { Sandstone, | 6 | - { &c. | | - LOWER SILURIAN ROCKS. { +-----+ - { Llandeilo | | Fish, 1847, - { Flags, &c. | 7 | (Sedgwick.) - { +-----+ - ----- - { +-----+ - { Plynlimmon | | - { Group. | _a_ | - { +-----+ - { Bala | | Fish, 1847, - CAMBRIAN ROCKS. { Limestone. | _b_ | (Geologists of - { | | Government - { +-----+ Survey.) - { Snowdon | | - { Group. | _c_ | Fucoids. - { | | - { +-----+ - -The better marked sub-divisions of the Silurian System, as described -in the great work specially devoted to it, may be regarded as seven -in number. An eight has since been added, by the transference of the -Tilestones from the lower part of the Old Red Sandstone group, to the -upper part of the Silurian group underneath; but in order the better to -show how ichthyic discovery has in its slow course penetrated into the -depths, I shall retain the divisions recognized as those of the system -when that course began. The highest or most modern Silurian deposit, -then, (No. 1 of the accompanying diagram,) is the _Upper_ Ludlow Rock; -and it is in the superior strata of this division that the bone-bed -discovered in 1838 occurs; while the exceedingly minute vertebrate -remains described by Professor Phillips in 1842 occur in its base. The -division next in the descending order is the Aymestry Limestone, (No. 2;) -the next (No. 3.) the _Lower_ Ludlow rock; then (No. 4.) the Wenlock or -Dudley Limestone occurs; and then, last and oldest deposit of the _Upper_ -Silurian formation, the Wenlock shale, (No. 5.) It is in the fourth, or -Wenlock Limestone division, that the defensive spine described in the -“Edinburgh Review” for 1845 as the oldest vertebrate organism known at -the time, was found;[24] while the vertebrate organism found by Professor -Phillips belongs to the fifth, or base deposit of the Upper Silurian. -Further, the American spines of Onondago and Oriskany, described in 1846, -occurred in rocks deemed contemporary with those of the Wenlock division. -We next cross the line which separates the base of the Upper from the top -of the Lower Silurian deposits, and find a great arenaceous formation, -(No. 6,) known as the Caradoc Sandstones; while the Llandeilo Flags, (No. -7,) the formation upon which the sandstones rest, compose, according to -the sections of Sir Roderick, published in 1839, the lowest deposit of -the Lower Silurian rocks. And it is in the upper part of this lowest -member of the system that the ichthyic defences, announced in 1847 by -Professor Sedgwick, occur. Vertebrate remains have now been detected in -the same relative position in the _seventh_ and _most ancient_ member -of the system, that they were found to occupy in its _first_ and _most -modern_ member ten years ago. But this is not all. Beneath the Lower -Silurian division there occur vast fossiliferous deposits, to which the -name “Cambrian System” was given, merely provisionally, by Sir Roderick, -but which Professor Sedgwick still retains as representative of a -distinct geologic period; and it is in these, greatly below the Lower -Silurian base line, as drawn in 1839, that the Bala Limestones occur. -The Plynlimmon rocks (_a_)—a series of conglomerate, grauwacke, and -slate beds, several thousand yards in thickness—intervene between the -Llandeilo Flags and the Limestones of Bala, (_b_.) And, of consequence, -the defensive spine of the _Onchus_, announced in 1847 as detected in -these limestones by the geologists of the Government Survey, must have -formed part of a fish that perished many ages ere the oldest of the Lower -Silurian formations _began_ to be deposited. - -Let us now, after this survey of both the amount of our materials, and -the order and time of their occurrence, pass on to the question of size, -as already stated. Did the ichthyic remains of the Silurian System, -hitherto examined and described, belong to large or to small fishes? The -question cannot be altogether so conclusively answered as in the case -of those Ganoids of the Lower Old Red Sandstone whose dermal skeletons -indicate their original dimensions and form. In fishes of the Placoid -order, such as the Sharks and Rays, the dermal skeleton is greatly less -continuous and persistent than in such Ganoids as the Dipterians and -Cœlacanths; and when their remains occur in the fossil state, we can -reason, in most instances, regarding the bulk of the individuals of which -they formed part, merely from that of detached teeth or spines, whose -proportion to the entire size of the animals that bore them cannot be -strictly determined. We can, indeed, do little more than infer, that -though a large Placoid may have been armed with but small spines or -teeth, a small Placoid could not have borne very large ones. And to this -Placoid order all the Silurian fish, from the Aymestry Limestone to the -Cambrian deposits of Bala inclusive, unequivocally belong. Nor, as has -been already said, is there sufficient evidence to show that any of the -ichthyic remains of the Upper Ludlow rocks do _not_ belong to it. It is -peculiarly the order of the system. The Ludlow bone-bed contains not -only defensive spines, but also teeth, fragments of jaws, and shagreen -points; whereas, in all the inferior deposits which yield any trace of -the vertebrata, the remains are those of defensive spines exclusively. -Let us, then, take the defensive spine as the part on which to found our -comparison. - -One of the best marked Placoids of the Upper Ludlow bone-bed is that -_Onchus Murchisoni_ to which the distinguished geologist whose name it -bears refers, in his communication, as so nearly resembling the oldest -Placoid yet known,—that of the Bala Limestone. And the living fishes -with which the _Onchus Murchisoni_ must be compared, says Agassiz, -though “the affinity,” he adds, “may be rather distant,” are those of -the genera “_Cestracion_, _Centrina_, and _Spinax_.” I have placed -before me a specimen of recent _Spinax_, of a species well known to -all my readers on the sea-coast, the _Spinax Acanthias_, or common -dog-fish, so little a favorite with our fishermen. It measures exactly -two feet three inches in length; and of the defensive spines of its two -dorsals,—these spear-like thorns on the creature’s back immediately in -advance of the fins, which so frequently wound the fisher’s hand,—the -anterior and smaller measures, from base to point, an inch and a half, -and the posterior and larger, two inches. I have also placed before me -a specimen of _Cestracion Phillippi_, (the Port Jackson Shark,) a fish -now recognized as the truest existing analogue of the Silurian Placoids. -It measures twenty-two three fourth inches in length, and is furnished, -like _Spinax_, with two dorsal spines, of which the anterior and larger -measures from base to point one one half inch, and the posterior and -smaller, one one fifth inch. But the defensive spine of the _Onchus -Murchisoni_, as exhibited in one of the Ludlow specimens, measures, -though mutilated at both ends, three inches and five eighth parts in -length. Even though existing but as a fragment, it is as such nearly -twice the length of the largest spine of the dog-fish, unmutilated and -entire, and considerably _more_ than twice the length of the largest -spine of the Port Jackson Shark. The spines detected by Professor -Phillips, in an inferior stratum of the same upper deposit, were, as -has been shown, of microscopic minuteness; and when they seemed to -rest on the extreme horizon of ichthyic existence as the most ancient -remains of their kind, the author of the “Vestiges” availed himself of -the fact. He regarded the little creatures to which they had belonged -is the fœtal embryos of their class, or—to employ the language of the -Edinburgh Reviewer—as “the tokens of Nature’s first and half-abortive -efforts to make fish out of the lower animals.” From the latter editions -of his work, the paragraph to which the Reviewer refers has, I find, -been expunged; for the horizon has greatly extended, and what seemed -to be its line of extreme distance has travelled into the middle of -the prospect. But that the passage should have at all existed is a not -uninstructive circumstance, and shows how unsafe it is, in more than -external nature, to regard the line at which, for the time, the landscape -closes, and heaven and earth seem to meet, as in reality the world’s end. -The Wenlock spine, though certainly not microscopic, is, I am informed -by Sir Philip Egerton, of but small size; whereas the contemporary spine -of the Onondago Limestone, though comparatively more a fragment than the -spine of the Upper Ludlow _Onchus_,—for it measures only three inches in -length,—is at least five times as bulky as the largest spine of _Spinax -Acanthias_. Representing one of the massier fishes disporting amid the -some four or five small ones, of which in my illustration, the naturalist -catches a glimpse in fording the unknown lake, it at least serves to -show that all the Silurian ichthyolites must not be described as small, -seeing that not only might many of its undetected fish have been large, -but that some of those which _have_ been detected were actually so. -Another American spine, of nearly the same formation,—for it occurs in -a limestone, varying from twenty to seventy feet in thickness, which -immediately overlies that of the Onondago deposit, though still more -fragmentary than the first, for its length is only two three eighth -inches,—maintains throughout a nearly equal thickness,—a circumstance -in itself indicative of considerable size; and in positive bulk it -almost rivals the Onondago one. Of the Lower Silurian and Bala fishes no -descriptions or figures have yet appeared. And such, up to the present -time, is the testimony derived from this department of Geology, so far -as I have been able to determine it, regarding the size of the ancient -Silurian vertebrata. “No organism,” says Professor Oken, “is, nor ever -has one been, created, which is not microscopic.” The Professor’s pupils -and abettors, the assertors of the development hypothesis, appeal to -the geological evidence as altogether on _their_ side in the case; and -straightway a few witnesses enter court. But, lo! among the expected -dwarfs, there appear individuals of more than the average bulk and -stature. - -[Illustration: Fig. 47. - -a. _Posterior Spine of Spinax Acanthias._ - -b. _Fragment of Onondago Spine._ - -(Natural Size.)] - -Still, however, the question of organization remains. Did these ancient -Placoid fishes stand high or low in the scale? According to the poet, -“What can we reason but from what we know?” We are acquainted with the -Placoid fishes of the present time; and from these only, taking analogy -as our guide, can we form any judgment regarding the rank and standing -of their predecessors, the Placoids of the geologic periods. But the -consideration of this question, as it is specially one on which the -later assertors of the development hypothesis concentrate themselves, I -must, to secure the space necessary for its discussion, defer till my -next chapter. Meanwhile, I am conscious I owe an apology to the reader -for what he must deem tedious minuteness of description, and a too -prolix amplitude of statement. It is only by representing things as they -actually are, and in the true order of their occurrence, that the effect -of the partially selected facts and exaggerated descriptions of the -Lamarckian can be adequately met. True, the disadvantages of the more -sober mode are unavoidably great. He who feels himself at liberty to -arrange his collected shells, corals, and fish-bones, into artistically -designed figures, and to select only the pretty ones, will be of course -able to make of them a much finer show than he who is necessitated to -represent them in the order and numerical proportions in which they occur -on some pebbly beach washed by the sea. And such is the advantage, in a -literary point of view, of the ingenious theorist, who, in making figures -of his geological facts, takes no more of them than suits his purpose, -over the man who has to communicate the facts as he finds them. But the -homelier mode is the true one. “Could we obtain,” says a distinguished -metaphysician, “a distinct and full history of all that has passed in -the mind of a child, from the beginning of life and sensation till it -grows up to the use of reason,—how its infant faculties began to work, -and how they brought forth and ripened all the various notions, opinions, -and sentiments which we find in ourselves when we come to be capable -of reflection,—this would be a treasure of natural history which would -probably give more light into the human faculties than all the systems -of philosophers about them since the beginning of the world. But it is -in vain,” he adds, “to wish for what nature has not put within the reach -of our power.” In like manner, could we obtain, it may be remarked, a -full and distinct account of a single class of the animal kingdom, from -its first appearance till the present time, “this would be a treasure -of natural history which would cast more light” on the origin of living -existences, and the true economy of creation, than all the theories of -all the philosophers “since the beginning of the world.” And in order to -approximate to such a history as nearly as possible,—and it does seem -possible to approximate near enough to substantiate the true readings of -the volume, and to correct the false ones,—it is necessary that the real -vestiges of creation should be carefully investigated, and their order of -succession ascertained. - - - - -HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. - - -We have seen that some of the Silurian Placoids were large of size: the -question still remains, Were they high in intelligence and organization? - -The Edinburgh Reviewer, in contending with the author of the “Vestiges,” -replies in the affirmative, by claiming for them the first place among -fishes. “Taking into account,” he says, “the brain and the whole nervous, -circulating, and generative systems, they stand at the highest point of -a natural ascending scale.” They are fishes, he again remarks, that rank -among “the very highest types of their class.” - -“The fishes of this early age, and of all other ages previous to -the Chalk,” says his antagonist, in reply, “are, for the most part, -cartilaginous. The cartilaginous fishes—_Chondropterygii_ of Cuvier—are -placed by that naturalist as a second series in his descending scale; -being, however, he says, ‘in some measure _parallel to the first_.’ -How far this is different from their being the highest types of the -fish class, need not be largely insisted upon. Linnæus, again, was so -impressed by the low characters of many of this order, that he actually -ranked them with worms. Some of the cartilaginous fishes, nevertheless, -have certain peculiar features of organization, chiefly connected with -reproduction, in which they excel other fish; but such features are -partly partaken of by families in inferior sub-kingdoms, showing that -they cannot truly be regarded as marks of grade in their own class. When -we look to the great fundamental characters particularly to the framework -for the attachment of the muscles, what do we find?—why, that of these -Placoids,—‘the highest types of their class,’—it is barely possible to -establish their being vertebrata at all, the back-bone having generally -been too slight for preservation, although the vertebral columns of later -fossil fishes are as entire as those of any other animals. In many of -them traces can be observed of the muscles having been attached to the -external plates, strikingly indicating their low grade as vertebrate -animals. The Edinburgh Reviewer ‘highest types of their class’ are in -reality a separate series of that class, generally inferior, taking the -leading features of organization of structure as a criterion, but when -details of organization are regarded, stretching farther, both downward -and upward, than the other series; so that, looking at one extremity, we -are as much entitled to call them the lowest, as the Reviewer, looking at -another extremity, is to call them the ‘highest of their class.’ Of the -general inferiority there can be no room for doubt. Their cartilaginous -structure is, in the first place, analogous to the embryonic state of -vertebrated animals in general. The maxillary and intermaxillary bones -are in them rudimental. Their tails are finned on the under side only,—an -admitted feature of the salmon in an embryonic stage; and the mouth is -placed on the under side of the head,—also a mean and embryonic feature -of structure. These characters are essential and important, whatever -the Edinburgh Reviewer may say to the contrary; they are the characters -which, above all, I am chiefly concerned in looking to, for they are -features of embryonic progress, and embryonic progress is the grand key -to the theory of development.” - -Such is the ingenious piece of special pleading which this most popular -of the Lamarckians directs against the standing and organization of the -earlier fishes. Let us examine it somewhat in detail, and see whether -the slight admixture of truth which it contains serves to do aught more -than to render current, like the gilding of a counterfeit guinea spread -over the base metal, the amount of error which lies beneath. I know -not a better example than that which it furnishes, of the entanglement -and perplexity which the meshes of an artificial classification, when -converted, in argumentative processes, into symbols and abstractions, are -sure to involve subjects simple enough in themselves. - -Fishes, according to the classification of a preponderating majority -of the ichthyologists that have flourished from the earliest times -down to those of Agassiz, have been divided into two great series, the -_Ordinary_ or osseous, and the _Chondropterygii_ or cartilaginous. And -these two divisions of the class, instead of being ranged consecutively -in a continuous line, the one in advance of the other, have been -ranged in two parallel lines, the one directly abreast of the other. -There is this further peculiarity in the arrangement, that the line -of the cartilaginous series, from the circumstance that some of its -families rise higher and some sink lower in the scale than any of the -ordinary fishes, outflanks the array of the osseous series at both -ends. The front which it presents contains fewer genera and species -than that of the osseous division; but, like the front of an army drawn -out in single file, it extends along a greater length of ground. And -to this long-fronted series of the cartilaginous, or, according to -Cuvier, _chondropterygian_ fishes, the Placoid families of Agassiz -belong,—among the rest, the Placoids of the Silurian formations, Upper -and Lower. But though all the Placoids of this latter naturalist be -cartilaginous fishes, all cartilaginous fishes are not Placoids. The -_Sturionidæ_ are cartilaginous, and are, as such, ranked by Cuvier -among the _Chondropterygii_, whereas Agassiz places them in his Ganoid -order. Many of the extinct fishes, too, such as the _Acanthodei_, -_Dipteridæ_, _Cephalaspidæ_, were, as we have seen, cartilaginous in -their internal framework, and yet true Ganoids notwithstanding. The -principle of Agassiz’s classification wholly differs from that of Cuvier -and the older ichthyologists; for it is a classification founded, not -on the character of the internal but on that of the cuticular or dermal -skeleton. And while to the geologist it possesses great and obvious -advantages over every other,—for of the earlier fishes very little more -than the cuticular skeleton survives,—it has this further recommendation -to the naturalist, that, (in so far at least as its author has been true -to his own principles,) instead of anomalously uniting the highest and -lowest specimens of their class,—the fishes that most nearly approximate -to the reptiles on the one hand, and the fishes that sink furthest -towards the worms on the other,—it gathers into one consistent order all -the individuals of the higher type, distinguished above their fellows -by their development of brain, the extensive range of their instincts, -and the perfection of their generative systems. Further, the history of -animal existences, as recorded in the sedimentary rocks of our planet, -reads a recommendation of this scheme of classification which it extends -to no other. We find that in the progress of creation the fishes _began -to be_ by groupes and septs, arranged according to the principle on which -it erects its orders. The Placoids came first, the Ganoids succeeded -them, and the Ctenoids and Cycloids brought up the rear. The march has -been marshalled according to an appointed programme, the order of which -it is peculiarly the merit of Agassiz to have ascertained. - -Now, may I request the reader to mark, in the first place that what we -have specially to deal with at the present stage of the argument are the -Placoid fishes of the Silurian formations, Upper and Lower. May I ask him -to take note, in the second, that the long-fronted _chondropterygian_ -series of Cuvier, though it includes, as has already been said, the -Placoid order of Agassiz,—just as the red-blooded division of animals -includes the bimana and quadrumana,—is no more to be regarded as -_identical_ with the Placoids, than the red-blooded animals are to be -regarded as identical with the apes or with the human family. It simply -includes them in the character of _one_ of the three great divisions into -which it has been separated,—the division ranged, if I may so express -myself, on the extreme right of the line; its middle portion, or main -body, being composed of the _Sturiones_, a family on the general level of -the osseous fishes; while, ranged on the extreme left, we find the low -division of the _Suctorii_, _i. e._ Cyclostomi, or Lampreys. But with -the middle and lower divisions we have at present nothing to do; for of -neither of them, whether _Sturiones_ or _Suctorii_, does the Silurian -System exhibit a trace. Further be it remarked, that the scheme of -classification which gives an abstract standing to the _Chondropterygii_, -is in itself merely a certain perception of resemblance which existed -in certain minds, having _cartilage_ for its general idea; just as -another certain perception of resemblance in one other certain mind -had _cuticular skeleton_ for its general idea, and as yet another -perception of resemblance in yet other certain minds had _red blood_ -for its general idea. As shown by the disparities which obtain among -the section which the scheme serves to separate from the others, it no -more determines rank or standing than that greatly more ancient scheme -of classification into “ring-streaked and spotted,” which served to -distinguish the flocks of the patriarch Jacob from those of Laban his -father-in-law, but which did not distinguish goats from sheep, nor sheep -from cattle. - -The effect of introducing, after this manner, generalizations made -altogether irrespective of _rank_, and avowedly without reference to it, -into what are inherently and specifically _questions of rank_, admits of -a simple illustration. - -Let us suppose that it was not with the standing of the Silurian Placoids -that we had to deal, but with that of the _mammals_ of the recent -period, including the _quadrumana_, and even the _bimana_, and that we -had ventured to describe them, in the words of the Edinburgh Reviewer, -as “the very highest types of their class.” What would be thought of -the reasoner who, in challenging the justice of the estimate, would -argue that these creatures, men as well as monkeys, belonged simply to -that division of red-blooded animals which includes, with the bimana -and quadrumana, the frog, the gudgeon, and the _earthworm_?—a division, -he might add, “which, when details of organization are regarded, -stretches farther, both downward and upward,” than that division of the -white-blooded animals to which the crab, the spider, the cuttle-fish, -and the dragon fly belong; “so that, looking at one extremity, any one -is as much entitled to call the red-blooded animals the lowest division, -as any other, looking at another extremity, is to call them the highest -division, of animals.” What, it might well be asked in reply, has the -earthworm, with its red-blood to do in a question respecting the place -and standing of the bimana? Or what, in the parallel case, have the -_Suctorii_—the worms of Linnæus—to do in a question respecting the -place and standing of the real Placoids? True it is that, according to -one principle of classification, now grown somewhat obsolete, men and -earthworms are equally red-blooded animals; true it is that, according -to another principle of classification, the Placoids of Agassiz and the -cartilaginous worms of Linnæus are equally _Chondropterygii_. The bimana -and the earthworm have their red blood in common; the glutinous hag and -the true Placoids have as certainly their internal cartilage in common; -and if the fact of the red blood of the worm lowers in no degree the rank -of the bimana, then, on the same principle, the fact of the internal -cartilage of the glutinous hag cannot possibly detract from the standing -of the true Placoid. In both cases they are creatures that entirely -differ,—the earthworms from the bimana, and the cartilaginous _worms_ -from the Placoids; and the classification which tags them together, -whether it be that of Aristotle or that of Cuvier, cannot be converted -into a sort of minus quantity, of force enough to detract from the value -and standing of the bimana in the one case, or of the true Placoids -in the other. It is in no degree derogatory to the human family that -earthworms possess red blood; it is in no degree derogatory to the true -Placoids that the _Suctorii_ possess cartilaginous skeletons. - -Let the reader now mark the use which has been made, by the author of -the “Vestiges,” of the name and authority of Linnæus. “Linnæus,” he -states, “was so impressed by the low character of many of this order, -(the _Chondropterygii_,) that he actually ranked them with worms.” Now, -what is the fact here? Simply that Linnæus had no such general order as -the _Chondropterygii_ in his eye at all. Though chiefly remarkable as a -naturalist for the artificialness of his classifications, his estimate -of the cartilaginous fishes was remarkable—though carried too far in its -extremes, and in some degree founded in error—for an opposite quality. -It was an estimate formed, in the main, on a natural basis. Instead of -taking their cartilaginous skeleton into account, he looked chiefly at -their standing as animals; and, struck with that extent of front which -they present, and with both their superiority on the extreme right, and -their inferiority on the extreme left, to the ordinary fishes, he erected -them into two separate orders, the one lower and the other higher than -the members of the osseous line. And so far was he from regarding the -true Placoids—those _Chondropterygii_ which to an internal skeleton of -cartilage add external plates, points, or spines of bone—as low in the -scale, that he actually raised them above fishes altogether, by erecting -them into an order of reptiles,—the older _Amphibia Nantes_. Surely, if -the name of Linnæus was to be introduced into this controversy at all, it -ought to have been in connection with _this_ special fact; seeing that -the point to be determined in the question under discussion is simply -the place and standing of that very order which the naturalist rated so -high,—not the place and standing of the order which he degraded. It so -happens that there is one of the _Chondropterygii_ which, so far from -being a true Placoid, does not possess a single osseous plate, point, or -spine: it is a worm like creature, without eyes, without movable jaws, -without vertebral joints, without scales, always enveloped in slime, and -greatly abhorred by our Scotch boatmen of the Moray Frith, who hold that -it burrows, like the grave-worm, in the decaying bodies of the dead. -And this creature, “the glutinous hag,” or, according to north-country -fishermen, the “ramper-eel,” or “poison-ramper,” was regarded by Linnæus -as belonging, not to the class of fishes, but to the Vermes. Now, _this_ -is the special fact with which, in the development controversy, the -author of the “Vestiges” connects the name of the Swedish naturalist! -All the fish of the Silurian System belonged to that true Placoid order -which Linnæus, impressed by its high standing, erected into an order, -not of worms, but of reptiles. He elevated A, the true Placoid, while he -degraded B, the glutinous hag. But it was necessary to the argument of -the author of the “Vestiges” that the earliest existing fish should be -represented as fish low in the scale; and so he has cited the name and -authority of Linnæus in its bearing against the glutinous hag B, as if -it had borne against the standing of the true Placoid A. The Patagonians -are the tallest and bulkiest men in the world, whereas their neighbors, -the Fuegians are a slim and diminutive race. And if, in some controversy -raised regarding the real size of the more gigantic tribe, they were to -be described as the “very _tallest_ types of their class,” any statement -in reply, to the effect that some trustworthy voyager had examined -certain races of the extreme south of America, and had found that they -were both short and thin, would be neither relevant in its facts nor -legitimate in its bearing. But if the controversialist who thus strove -to strengthen his case by the voyager’s authority, was at the same time -fully aware that the voyager had seen not only the diminutive Fuegians, -but also the gigantic Patagonians, and that he had described these last -as very gigantic indeed, the introduction of the statement regarding the -smaller race, when he wholly sank the statement regarding the larger, -would be not merely very irrelevant in the circumstances, but also very -unfair. Such, however, is the style of statement to which the author of -the “Vestiges” has (I trust inadvertently) resorted in this controversy. - -It is not uninstructive to mark how slowly and gradually the naturalists -have been groping their way to a right classification in the ichthyic -department of their science, and how it has been that identical -perception of resemblance, having _cartilage_ for its general idea, -to which the author of the “Vestiges” attaches so much importance, -that has served mainly to retard their progress. Not a few of the more -distinguished among their number deemed it too important a distinction -to be regarded as merely secondary; and so long as it was retained as -a primary characteristic, the fishes failed to range themselves in the -natural order;—dissimilar tribes were brought into close neighborhood, -while tribes nearly allied were widely separated. It failed, as has -been shown, to influence Linnæus; and though he no doubt pressed his -peculiar views too far when he degraded the glutinous hag into a worm, -and elevated the Sharks and Rays into reptiles, it is certainly worthy -of remark, that, in the scheme of classification which is now regarded -as the _most natural_,—that of Professor Muller, modified by Professor -Owen,—the ichthyic worms of the Swede are placed in the first and -lowest order of fishes,—the _Dermopteri_,—and the greater part of his -ichthyic reptiles, in the eleventh and highest,—the _Plagiostomi_. Cuvier -yielded, as has been shown, to the idea of resemblance founded on the -_material_ of the ichthyic framework, and so ranged his fishes into two -parallel lines. Professor Oken, after first enunciating as law that “the -characteristic _organ_ of fishes is the osseous system,” confessed the -“great difficulty” which attaches to the question of skeletal “texture -or substance,” and finally gave up the distinction founded on it as -obstinately irreducible to the purposes of a natural classification. -“The cartilaginous fishes,” he says, “appear to belong to each other, -and are also usually arranged together; yet amongst them we find those -species, such as the Lampreys, which obviously occupy the lowest grade -of all fishes, while the Sharks and Rays remind us of the Reptilia.” -And so, sinking the consideration of texture altogether, he placed the -family of the Lamprey, including the glutinous hag, at the bottom of the -scale, and the Sharks and Rays at the top. Agassiz’s system, peculiarly -his own, has had the rare merit, as I have shown, of furnishing a key -to the history of the fish in its several dynasties, which we may in -vain seek in any other. His divisions,—if, retaining his strongly-marked -Placoids and Ganoids, as orders stamped in the mint of nature, we throw -his perhaps less obviously divisible Ctenoids and Cycloids into one -order,—the corneous or horn-covered,—are scarcely less representative -of periods than those great classes of the vertebrata, mammals, birds, -reptiles, and fishes, which we find not less regularly ranged in their -order of succession in the geologic record than in the “Animal Kingdom” -of Cuvier,—a shrewd corroboration, in both cases, I am disposed to -think, of the rectitude of the arrangement. What seems to be the special -defect of his system is, that having erected his four orders, and then -finding a certain number of residuary families that, on his principle -of cuticular character, stubbornly refused to fall into any determinate -place, he distributed them among the others, with reference chiefly to -the totally distinct principle of Cuvier. Thus the _Suctorii_, soft, -smooth, slimy-skinned fishes, that do not possess a single placoid -character, and are not true Placoids, he has yet placed in his Placoid -order, influenced, apparently, by the “perception of resemblance that -has _cartilage_ for its central idea;” and the effect has been a massing -into one anomalous and entangled group the fishes of the first period -of geologic history, with fishes of which we do not find a trace save -in the existing scene of things, and of the highest families of their -class with families that occupy the lowest place. But we live in an age -in which even the benefactors of the world of mind cannot make false -steps with impunity; and so, while Agassiz’s _three_ ichthyic orders will -continue to be recognized by the palæontologist as the orders of three -great geologic periods, the _Suctorii_ have already been struck from off -his higher fishes by the classification of Muller and Owen, and carried -to that lowest point in the scale (indicated by Linnæus and Oken) which -their inferior standing renders so obviously the natural one. Some of -my readers may perhaps remember how finely Bacon, in his “Wisdom of the -Ancients,” interprets the old mythologic story of Prometheus. Prometheus, -says the philosopher, had conferred inestimable favors on men, by -moulding their forms into shape, and bringing them fire from heaven; and -yet they complained of him and his teachings to Jupiter. And the god, -instead of censuring their ingratitude, was pleased with the complaint, -and rewarded them with gifts. In putting nature to the question, it is -eminently wholesome to be doubting, cross-examining, complaining; ever -demanding of our masters and benefactors the philosophers, that they -should reign over us, not arbitrarily and despotically, - - “Like the old kings, with high exacting looks, - Sceptred and globed,” - -but like our modern constitutional monarchs, who govern by law; and, -further, that an appeal from their decisions on all subjects within the -jurisdiction of Nature should for ever be open to Nature herself. The -seeming ingratitude of such a course, if the “complaints” be made in a -right spirit and on proper grounds, Jupiter always rewards with gifts. - -Let us now see for ourselves, in this spirit, whether there may not be -something absolutely derogatory, in the existence of a cartilaginous -skeleton, to the creatures possessing it; or whether a deficit of -internal bone may not be greatly more than neutralized, as it assuredly -must have been in the view of Linnæus, Muller, and Owen, by a larger than -ordinary share of a vastly more important substance. - - - - -THE PLACOID BRAIN. EMBRYONIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY OF A LOW -ORDER. - - -That special substance, according to whose mass and degree of development -all the creatures of this world take rank in the scale of creation, -is not _bone_, but _brain_. Were animals to be ranged according to -the solidity of their bones, the class of birds would be assigned the -first place; the family of the _Felidæ_, including the tiger and lion, -the second; and the other terrestrial carnivora the third. Man and the -herbivorous animals, though tolerably low in the scale, would be in -advance of at least the reptiles. Most of these, however, would take -precedence of the sagacious _Delphinidæ_; the osseous fishes would -come next in order; the true Placoids would follow, succeeded by the -_Sturiones_; and the _Suctorii_, _i. e._ Cyclostomi or Lampreys, would -bring up the rear. There would be evidently no order here: the utter -confusion of such an arrangement, like that of the bits of a dissected -map flung carelessly out of its box by a child, would of itself -demonstrate the inadequacy and erroneousness of the regulating principle. -But how very different the appearance presented, when for _solidity of -bone_ we substitute _development of brain_! Man takes his proper place -at the head of creation; the lower mammalia follow,—each species in -due order, according to its modicum of intelligence; the birds succeed -the mammalia; the reptiles succeed the birds; the fishes succeed the -reptiles; next in the long procession come the invertebrate animals; and -these, too, take rank, if not according to their development of brain -proper, at least according to their development of the _substance_ of -brain. The occipital nervous ganglion of the scorpion greatly exceeds -in size that of the earthworm; and the occipital nervous ring of the -lobster, that of the intestinal Ascaris. At length, when we reach the -lowest or _acrite_ division of the animal kingdom, the substance of -brain altogether disappears. It has been calculated by naturalists, that -in the vertebrata, the brain in the class of fishes bears an average -proportion to the spinal cord of about two to one; in the class of -reptiles, of about two and a half to one; in the class of birds, of about -three to one; in the class of mammals, of about four to one; and in the -high-placed, sceptre-bearing human family, a proportion of not less than -_twenty-three_ to one. It is palpably according to development of brain, -not development of bone, that we are to determine points of precedence -among the animals,—a fact of which no one can be more thoroughly aware -than the author of the “Vestiges” himself. Of this let me adduce a -striking instance, of which I shall make further use anon. - -“All life,” says Oken, “is from the sea; none from the continent. -Man also is a child of the warm and shallow parts of the sea in the -neighborhood of the land.” Such also was the hypothesis of Lamarck and -Maillet. In following up the view of his masters, the author of the -“Vestiges” fixes on the _Delphinidæ_ as the sea-inhabiting progenitors -of the simial family, and, through the simial family, of man For that -highest order of the mammalia to which the _Simiadæ_ (monkeys) belong, -“there remains,” he says, “a basis in the _Delphinidæ_, the last and -smallest of the cetacean tribes. This affiliation has a special support -in the brain of the dolphin family, which is distinctly allowed to be, -in proportion to general bulk, the greatest among mammalia next to the -orang-outang and man. We learn from Tiedemann, that each of the cerebral -hemispheres is composed, as in man and the monkey tribe, of three -lobes,—an anterior, a middle, and a posterior; and these hemispheres -present much more numerous circumvolutions and grooves than those of any -other animal. Here it might be rash to found any thing upon the ancient -accounts of the dolphin,—its familiarity with man, and its helping him -in shipwreck and various marine disasters; although it is difficult to -believe these stories to be altogether without some basis in fact. There -is no doubt, however, that the dolphin evinces a predilection for human -society, and charms the mariner by the gambols which it performs beside -his vessel.” - -Here, then, the author of the “Vestiges” palpably founds on a large -development of brain in the dolphin, and on the manifestation of a -correspondingly high order of instincts,—and this altogether irrespective -of the structure or composition of the creature’s internal skeleton. The -substance to which he looks as all-important in the case is _brain_, not -_bone_. For were he to estimate the standing of the dolphin, not by its -brain, but by its skeleton, he would have to assign to it a place, not -only _not_ in advance of its brethren the _mammalia_ of the sea, but -even in the rear of the _reptiles_ of the sea, the marine tortoises, or -turtles,—and scarce more than abreast of the osseous fishes. “Fishes,” -says Professor Owen, in his “Lectures on the Vertebrate Animals,” -“have the least proportion of earthy matter in their bones; birds the -largest. The mammalia, especially the active, predatory species, have -more earth, or harder bones, than reptiles. In each class, however, there -are differences in the density of bone among its several members. For -example, in the fresh-water fishes, the bones are lighter, and retain -more animal matter, than in those which swim in the denser sea. And in -the _dolphin_, a warm-blooded marine animal, they differ little in this -respect from those of the sea-fish.” Such being the fact, it is surely -but fair to inquire of the author of the “Vestiges,” why he should -determine the rank and standing of the _Delphinidæ_ according to one set -of principles, and the rank and standing of the Placoids according to -another and entirely different set? If the _Delphinidæ_ are to be placed -high in the scale, notwithstanding the softness of their skeletons, -simply because their brains are large, why are the Placoids to be -placed low in the scale, notwithstanding the largeness of their brains, -simply because their skeletons are soft? It is not too much to demand, -that on the principle which he himself recognizes as just, he should -either degrade the dolphin or elevate the Placoid. For it is altogether -inadmissible that he should reason on one set of laws when the exigencies -of his hypothesis require that creatures with soft skeletons should be -raised in the scale, and on another and entirely different set when its -necessities demand that they should be depressed. - -But do the Placoids possess in reality a large development of brain? I -have examined the brains of almost all the common fish of our coast, both -osseous and cartilaginous, not, I fear, with the skill of a Tiedemann, -but all the more intelligently in consequence of what Tiedemann had -previously done and written: and so I can speak with some little -confidence on the subject, so far at least as my modicum of experience, -thus acquired, extends. Of all the common fish of the Scottish seas, -the spotted or lesser dog-fish bears, in proportion to its size, the -largest brain; the gray or picked dog-fish ranks next in its degree -of development; the Rays, in their various species, follow after; and -the osseous fishes compose at least the great body of the rear; while -still further behind, there lags a hapless class—the _Suctorii_, one of -which, the glutinous hag, has scarce any brain, and one, the _Amphioxus_ -or lancelet, wants brain altogether. I have compared the brain of the -spotted dog-fish with that of a young alligator, and have found that in -scarce any perceptible degree was it inferior, in point of bulk, and very -slightly indeed in point of organization, to the brain of the reptile. -And the instincts of this Placoid family,—one of the truest existing -representatives of the Placoids of the Silurian System[25] to which we -can appeal,—correspond, we invariably find, with their superior cerebral -development. I have seen the common dog-fish, _Spinax Acanthias_, -hovering in packs in the Moray Frith, some one or two fathoms away from -the side of the herring boat from which, when the fishermen were engaged -in hauling their nets, I have watched them, and have admired the caution -which, with all their ferocity of disposition, they rarely failed to -manifest;—how they kept aloof from the net, even more warily than the -cetacea themselves,—though both dog-fish and cetacea are occasionally -entangled;—and how, when a few herrings were shaken loose from the -meshes they at once darted upon them, exhibiting for a moment, through -the green depths, the pale gleam of their abdomens, as they turned upon -their sides to seize the desired morsels,—a motion rendered necessary -by the position of the mouth in this family; and how next, their object -accomplished, they fell back into their old position, and waited on as -before. And I have been assured by intelligent fishermen, that at the -deep-sea white-fishing, in which baited hooks, not nets, are employed, -the degree of shrewd caution exercised by these creatures seems more -extraordinary still. The hatred which the fisher bears to them arises not -more from the actual amount of mischief which they do him, than from the -circumstance that in most cases they persist in doing it with complete -impunity to themselves. I have seen, said an observant Cromarty fisherman -to the writer of these chapters, a pack of dog-fish watching beside -our boat, as we were hauling our lines, and severing the hooked fish, -as they passed them, at a bite, just a little above the vent, so that -they themselves escaped the swallowed hook; and I have frequently lost, -in this way, no inconsiderable portion of a fishing. I have observed, -however, he continued, that when a fresh pack of hungry dog-fish came -up, and joined the pack that had been robbing us so coolly, and at their -leisure, a sudden rashness would seize the whole,—the united packs would -become a mere heedless mob, and, rushing forward, they would swallow -our fish entire, and be caught themselves by the score and the hundred. -We may see something very similar to this taking place among even the -shrewder mammalia. When pig refuses to take his food, his mistress -straightway calls upon the cat, and, quickened by the dread of the coming -rival, he gobbles up his rations at once. With the comparatively large -development of brain, and the corresponding manifestations of instinct, -which the true Placoids exhibit, we find other unequivocal marks of a -general superiority to their class. In their reproductive organs they -rank not with the common fishes, nor even with the lower reptiles, -but with the Chelonians and the Sauria. Among the Rays, as among the -higher animals, there are individual attachments formed between male and -female: their eggs unlike the mere spawn of the osseous fishes, or of -even the Batrachians, are, like those of the tortoise and the crocodile, -comparatively few in number, and of considerable size: their young, -too, like the young of birds and of the higher reptiles, pass through -no such metamorphosis as those of the toad and frog, or of the amphibia -generally. And some of their number—the common dog-fish for instance—are -ovoviviparous, bringing forth their young, like the common viper and the -viviparous lizard, alive and fully formed. - -“But such features,” says the author of the “Vestiges,” referring -chiefly to certain provisions connected with the reproductory system -in the Placoids, “are partly partaken of by families in inferior -sub-kingdoms, showing that they cannot truly be regarded as marks of -grade in their own class.” Nay, single features do here and there occur -in the inferior sub-kingdoms, which very nearly resemble single features -in the placoid character and organization, which even very nearly -resemble single features in the _human_ character and organization; but -is there any of the inferior sub-kingdoms in which there occurs such -a _collocation_ of features? or does such a collocation occur in any -class of animals—setting the Placoids wholly out of view—which is not -a high class? Nay, further, does there occur in any of the inferior -sub-kingdoms—existing even as a single feature—that most prominent, -leading characteristic of this series of fishes,—a large brain? - -But is not the “cartilaginous structure” of the Placoids analogous to -the embryonic state of vertebrated animals in general? Do not the other -placoid peculiarities to which the author of the “Vestiges” refers,—such -as the heterocercal or one-sided tail, the position of the mouth on the -under side of the head, and the rudimental state of the maxillaries -and intermaxillaries,—bear further analogies with the embryonic state -of the higher animals? And is not “embryonic progress the grand key to -the theory of development?” Let us examine this matter. “These are the -characters,” says this ingenious writer, “which, above all, I am chiefly -concerned in looking to; for they are features of embryonic progress, and -embryonic progress is the grand key to the theory of development.” Bold -assertion, certainly; but, then, assertion is not argument! The statement -is not a reason for the faith that is in the author of the “Vestiges,” -but simply an avowal of it; it is simply a confession, not a defence, -of the Lamarckian creed; and, instead of being admitted as embodying a -first principle, it must be put stringently to the question, in order to -determine whether it contain a principle at all. - -In the first place, let us remark, that the cartilaginous structure -of the Placoids bears no very striking analogy to the cartilaginous -structure of the higher vertebrata in the embryonic state. In the case -of the _Delphinidæ_, with their soft skeletons, the analogy is greatly -more close. Bone consists of animal matter, chiefly gelatinous, hardened -by a diffusion of inorganic earth. In the bones of young and fœtal -mammalia, inhabitants of the land, the gelatinous prevails; in the old -and middle-aged there is a preponderance of the earth. Now, in the bones -of the dolphin there is comparatively little earth. The analogies of -its internal skeleton bear, not on the skeletons of its brethren the -mature full-grown mammals of the land, but on the skeletons of their -immature or fœtal offspring. But in the case of the true Placoids that -analogy is faint indeed. Their skeletons contain true bone;—the vertebral -joints of the Sharks and Rays possess each, as has been shown, an osseous -nucleus, which retains, when subjected to the heat of a common fire, -the complete form of the joint; and their cranial framework has its -surface always covered over with hard osseous points. But though their -skeletons possess thus their modicum of bone, unlike those of embryonic -birds or mammals, they contain, in what is properly their cartilage, no -gelatine. The analogy signally fails in the very point in which it has -been deemed specially to exist. The cartilage of the _Chondropterygii_ -is a substance so essentially different from that of young or embryonic -birds and mammals, and so unique in the animal kingdom, that the heated -water in which the one readily dissolves has no effect whatever upon the -other. It is, however, a curious circumstance, exemplified in some of the -Shark family,[26] though it merely serves, in its exceptive character, -to establish the general fact, that while the rays of the double fins, -which answer to the phalanges, are all formed of this _indissoluble_ -cartilage, those rays which constitute their outer framework, with the -rays which constitute the framework of all the single fins, are composed -of a _mucoidal_ cartilage, which boils into glue. At certain definite -lines a change occurs in the texture of the skeleton; and it is certainly -suggestive of thought, that the difference of substance which the change -involves distinguishes that part of the skeleton which is homologically -representative of the skeletons of the higher vertebrata, from that part -of it which is peculiar to the creature as a fish, viz. the dorsal and -caudal rays, and the extremities of the double fins. These emphatically -ichthyic portions of the animal may be dissipated by boiling, whereas -what Linnæus would perhaps term its _reptilian_ portion abides the heat -without reduction. - -But is not the one-sided tail, so characteristic of the sharks, and of -almost all the ancient Ganoids, also a characteristic of the young salmon -just burst from the egg? Yes, assuredly; and, so far as research on the -subject has yet extended, of not only the salmon, but of _all_ the other -osseous fishes in their fœtal state. The salmon, on its escape from the -egg, is a little monster of about three quarters of an inch in length, -with a huge heart-shaped bag, as bulky as all the rest of its body, -depending from its abdomen. In this bag provident nature has packed up -for it, in lieu of a nurse, food for five weeks; and, moving about every -where in its shallow pool, with its provision knapsack slung fast to it, -it reminds one disposed to be fanciful, save that its burden is on the -wrong side, of Scottish soldiers of the olden time summoned to attend -their king in war,— - - “Each on his _back_, a slender store, - His forty days’ provision bore, - As ancient statutes tell.” - -Around that terminal part of the creature’s body traversed by the -caudal portion of the vertebral column, which commences in the salmon -immediately behind the ventrals, there runs at this period, and for the -ensuing five weeks in which it does not feed, a membranous fringe or fin, -which exactly resembles that of the tadpole, and which, existing simply -as an expansion of the skin, exhibits no mark or rays. In the place of -the true caudal fin, however, we may detect with the assistance of a -lens, an internal framework with two well-marked lobes, and ascertain, -further, that this tail is set on awry,—the effect of a slight upward -bend in the creature’s body. And when viewed in a strong light as a -transparency, we perceive that the spinal cord takes the same upward -bend, and, as in the sturgeon, passes in an exceedingly attenuated -form into the upper lobe. What may be regarded as the _design_ of the -arrangement is probably to be found in the peculiar form given to the -little creature by the protuberan bag in front. A wise instinct teaches -it, from the moment of its exclusion from the egg, to avoid its enemies. -In the instant the human shadow falls upon its pool, we see it darting -into some recess at the side or bottom, with singular alacrity; and in -order to enable it to do so, and to steer itself aright,—as, like an -ill-trimmed vessel, deep in the water ahead, the balance of its body -is imperfect,—there is, if I may so express myself, a heterocercal -peculiarity of helm required. It has got an irregularly-developed tail to -balance an irregularly-developed body, as skiffs _lean_ on the one beam -and _full_ on the other require, in rowing, a cast of the rudder to keep -them straight in their course. - -Sinking altogether, however, the final cause of the peculiarity, and -regarding it simply as a _fœtal_ one, that indicates a certain stage -of imperfection in the creature in which it occurs, on what principle, -I ask, are we to infer that what is a sign of immaturity in the young -of one set of animals, is a mark of inferior organization in the adult -forms of another set? The want of eyes in any of the animal families, or -the want of organs of progression, or a fixed and sedentary condition, -like that of the oyster, are all marks of great inferiority. And yet, -if we admit the principle, that what are evidences of immaturity in -the young members of one family are signs of inferior organization in -the fully-grown members of another, it could easily be shown that eyes -and legs are defects, and that the unmoving oyster stands higher in the -scale than the ever-restless fish or bird. The immature _Tubularia_ -possess locomotive powers, whereas in their fully developed state they -remain fixed to one spot in their convoluted tubes. The immature _Lepas_ -is furnished with members well adapted for swimming, and with which it -swims freely; as it rises towards maturity, these become blighted and -weak; and, when fully grown,—fixed by its fleshy pedicle to the rock or -floating log to which it attached itself in its transition state,—it is -no longer able to swim. The immature _Balanus_ is furnished with two -eyes: in its state of maturity these are extinguished, and it passes its -period of full development in darkness. Further, it is not generally held -that in the human family a white skin is a decided mark of degradation, -but rather the reverse; and yet nothing can be more certain than that -the Negro fœtus has a white skin. Since eyes, and organs of progression, -and a power of moving freely, and a white skin, are mere embryonic -peculiarities in the _Balanus_, the _Lepas_, the _Tubularia_, and the -Negro, and yet are in themselves, when found in the mature animal, -evidences of a high, not of a low standing, on what principle, I ask are -we to infer that the peculiarity of a heterocercal tail, embryonic in the -salmon, is, when found in the mature Placoid, an evidence, not of a high -standing, but of a low? Every true analogy in the case favors an exactly -opposite view. In the heterocercal or one-sided tail, the vertebral -joints gradually diminish, as in the tails of the _Sauria_ and _Ophidia_, -till they terminate in a point; whereas the homocercal tail common to the -osseous fishes exhibits no true analogy with the tails of the higher -orders. Its abruptly terminating vertebral column, immensely developed -posterior processes, and broadly expanded osseous rays, seem to be simply -a few of the many marks of decline and degradation which fishes, the -oldest of the vertebrata, exhibit in this late age of the world, and -which, in at least the earlier geologic periods, when they were greatly -younger as a class, they did not betray. - -[Illustration: Fig. 48. - -a. _Tail of Spinax Acanthias._ - -b. _Tail of Ichthyosaurus Tenuirostris_, (Buckland.)] - -In illustration of this view, I would fain recommend to the reader a -simple experiment. Let him procure the tail of a common dog-fish, (fig. -48, _a_,) and cutting it across about half an inch above where the -caudal fin begins, let him boil it smartly for about half an hour. He -will first see it swell and then burst, all around those thinner parts -of the fin that are traversed by the caudal rays,—wholly mucoidal, as -shown by this test, in their texture, and which yield to the boiling -water, as if formed of isinglass. They finally dissolve, and drop away, -with the surrounding cuticular integument; and then there only remains, -as the insoluble framework of the whole, the bodies of the vertebræ, -with their neural and hœmal processes. The tail has now lost much of its -ichthyic character, and has acquired, instead, a considerable degree of -resemblance to the reptilian tail, as exemplified in the saurians. I -have introduced into the wood-cut, for the purpose of comparison, the -tail of the ichthyosaurus, (_b_.) It consists, like the other, of a -series of gradually diminishing vertebræ, and must have also supported, -says Professor Owen, a propelling fin, placed vertically, as in the -shark, which, however, from its perishable nature, has in every instance -disappeared in the earth, as that of the dog-fish disappears in the -boiling water. It will be seen that its processes are comparatively -smaller than those of the fish, and that the bodies of its vertebræ are -shorter and bulkier; but there is at least a general correspondence of -the parts; and were the tail of the crocodile, of which the vertebral -bodies are slender and the processes large, to be substituted for that of -the enaliosaur here, the correspondence would be more marked still. After -thus _developing_ the tail of the reptile out of that of the fish,—as the -cauldron-bearing Irish magician of the tale developed young ladies out -of old women,—simply by _boiling_, let the reader proceed to a second -stage of the experiment, and see whether he may not be able still further -to develope the reptilian tail so obtained, into that of the mammal, by -_burning_. Let him spread it out on a piece of iron hoop, and thrust it -into the fire; and then, after exposure for some time to a red heat has -consumed and dissipated its merely cartilaginous portions, such as the -neural and hœmal processes, with the little pieces which form the sides -of the neural arch, and left only the whitened bodies of the vertebræ, -let him say whether the bony portion which remains does not present a -more exact resemblance to the mammiferous tail—that of the dog, for -example—than any thing else he ever saw. The Lamarckians may well deem it -an unlucky circumstance, that one special portion of their theory should -demand the depreciation of the heterocercal tail, seeing that it might be -represented with excellent effect in another, as not merely a connecting -link in the upward march of progression between the tail of the true fish -and that of the true reptile, but as actually containing in itself—as -the caterpillar contains the future pupa and butterfly—the elements of -the reptilian and mammiferous tail. If there be any virtue in analogy, -the heterocercal tail is, I repeat, of a decidedly higher type than the -homocercal one. It furnishes the first example in the vertebrata of the -coccygeal vertebræ diminishing to a point, which characterizes not only -all the higher reptiles, but also all the higher mammals, and which we -find represented by the _Os coccygis_ in man himself. But to this special -point I shall again refer. - -With regard to that rudimentary state of the _occipital_ framework of -the Placoids to which the author of the “Vestiges” refers, it may be but -necessary to say that, notwithstanding the simplicity of their box-like -skulls, they bear in their character, as cases for the protection of -the brain, at least as close an analogy to the skulls of the higher -animals, as those of the osseous fishes, which consist usually of the -extraordinary number of from sixty to eighty bones,—a mark—the author of -the “Vestiges” himself being judge in the case—rather of inferiority than -the reverse. “Elevation is marked in the scale,” we find him saying, -“by an animal exchanging a multiplicity of parts serving one end, for -a smaller number.” The skull of a cod consists of about thrice as many -separate bones as that of a man. But I do not well see that in this case -the fact either of _simplicity_ in excess or of _multiplicity_ in excess -can be insisted upon in either direction, as a proper basis for argument. -Nearly the same remark applies to the maxillaries as to the skull. The -under jaw in man consists of a single bone; that of the thornback—if we -do not include the two suspending _ribs_, which belong equally to the -upper jaw—of two bones, (the number in all the mammiferous quadrupeds:) -that of the cod of four bones, and, if we include the suspending -_ribs_, of twelve. On what principle are we to hold, with _one_ as the -representative number of the highest type of jaw, that _two_ indicates -a lower standing than _four_, or _four_ than _twelve_? In reference to -the further statement, that in many of the ancient fishes “traces can -be observed of the muscles having been attached to the external plates, -strikingly indicating their low grade as vertebrate animals,” it may -be answer enough to state, that the peculiarity in question was not a -characteristic of the _most_ ancient fishes,—the Placoids of the Silurian -system,—but of some Ganoids of the succeeding systems. The reader may -remember, as a case in point, the example furnished by the nail-like bone -of _Asterolepis_, figured in page 111, in which there exists depressions -resembling that of the round ligament in the head of the quadrupedal -thigh-bone. And as for the remark that the opening of the mouth of -the Placoid, “on the under side of the head,” is indicative of a low -embryonic condition, it might be almost sufficient to remark, in turn, -that the lowest family of fishes—that to which the supposed worms of -Linnæus belong—have the mouth not under, but at the anterior termination -of the head,—in itself an evidence that the position of the mouth at the -extremity of the muzzle, common to the greater number of the osseous -fishes, can be no very high character, seeing that the humblest of the -_Suctorii_ possess it; and that many osseous fishes, whose mouths open, -not on the under, but the upper side of the snout, as in the distorted -and asymmetrical genus _Platessa_, are not only in no degree superior to -their bony neighbors, and far inferior to the placoid ones, but bear, -in direct consequence of the arrangement, an expression of unmistakable -stupidity. The objection, however, admits of a greatly more conclusive -reply. - -[Illustration: Fig. 49. - -PORT JACKSON SHARK, (_Cestracion Phillippi_.)] - -“This fish, to speak in the technical language of Agassiz,” says the -Edinburgh Reviewer, in reference to the ancient ichthyolite of the -Wenlock Shale, “undoubtedly belongs to the Cestraciont family of the -Placoid order,—proving to demonstration that the oldest known fossil fish -[1845] belongs to the highest type of that division of the vertebrata.” -I may add, that the character and family of this ancient specimen was -determined by our highest British authority in fossil ichthyology, -Sir Philip Egerton. And it is in depreciation of Professor Sedgwick’s -statement regarding its high standing that the author of the “Vestiges” -refers to the supposed inferiority indicated by a mouth opening, not at -the extremity of the muzzle, but under the head. Let us, then, fully -grant, for the argument’s sake, that the occurrence of the mouth in the -muzzle _is_ a sign of superiority, and its occurrence under the head a -mark of great inferiority, and then ascertain how the fact stands with -regard to the _Cestracion_. “The Cestracion sub-genus,” says Mr. James -Wilson, in his admirable treatise on fishes, which forms the article -ICHTHYOLOGY in the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” “has the temporal aperture, -the anal fin, and rounded teeth, of _Squalus Mustelus_; _but the mouth is -TERMINAL, or AT THE EXTREMITY OF THE POINTED MUZZLE_.” The accompanying -figure, (fig. 49,) taken from a specimen of _Cestracion_ in the -collection of Professor John Fleming, may be recorded as of some little -interest, both from its direct bearing on the point in question, and from -the circumstance that it represents, not inadequately for its size, the -sole surviving species (_Cestracion Phillippi_) of the oldest vertebrate -family of creation. With this family, so far as is yet known, ichthyic -existence first began. It does not appear that on the globe which we -inhabit there was ever an ocean tenanted by living creatures at all that -had not its _Cestracion_,—a statement which could not be made regarding -any other vertebrate family. In Agassiz’s “Tabular View of the Genealogy -of Fishes,” the Cestracionts, and they only, sweep across the entire -geologic scale. And, as shown in the figure, the mouth in this ancient -family, instead of opening, as in the ordinary sharks, under the middle -of the head, to expose them to the suspicion of being creatures of low -and embryonic character, opened in a broad, honest-looking muzzle, very -much resembling that of the hog. The mouths of the most ancient Placoids -of which we know any thing, _did not_, I reiterate, _open under their -heads_. - -But why introduce the element of embryonic progress into this question -at all? It is not a question of embryonic progress. The very legerdemain -of the sophist—the juggling by which he substitutes his white balls -for black, or converts his pigeons into crows—consists in the art of -attaching the conclusions founded on the facts or conditions of one -subject, to some other subject essentially distinct in its nature. -Gestation is not creation. The history of the young of animals in their -embryonic state is simply the history of the fœtal young; just as the -history of insect transformation, in which it has been held by good men, -but weak reasoners, that there exists direct evidence of the doctrine -of the resurrection, is the history of insect transformation, and of -nothing else. True, the human mind is so constituted that it converts -all nature into a storehouse of comparisons and analogies; and this fact -of the metamorphosis of the creeping caterpillar, after first passing -through an intermediate period of apparent death as an inert aurelia, -into a winged image, seemed to have seized on the human fancy at a very -early age, as wonderfully illustrative of life, death, and the future -state. The Egyptians wrapped up the bodies of their dead in the chrysalis -form, so that a mummy, in their apprehension, was simply a human pupa, -waiting the period of its enlargement; and the Greeks had but one word -in their language for butterfly and the soul. But not the less true is -it, notwithstanding, that the facts of insect transformation furnish no -legitimate key to the totally distinct facts of a resurrection of the -body, and of a life after death. And on what principle, then, are we to -trace the origin of past dynasties in the changes of the fœtus if not -the rise of the future dynasty in the transformations of the caterpillar? -“These [embryonic] characters [that of the heterocercal tail, and of the -mouth of the ordinary shark type] are essential and important,” remarks -the author of the “Vestiges,” “whatever the Edinburgh Reviewer may say -to the contrary;—they are the characters which, above all, I am chiefly -concerned in looking to, for they are the features of embryonic progress, -and embryonic progress is the grand key to the theory of development.” -Yes; the grand key to the theory of _fœtal_ development; for embryonic -progress _is_ fœtal development. But on what is the assertion based -that they form a key to the history of creation? Aurelia are not human -bodies laid out for the sepulchre, nor are butterflies human souls; -as certainly gestation is not creation, nor a life of months in the -uterus a succession of races for millions of ages outside of it. On -what grounds, then, is the assertion made? Does it embody the result -of a discovery or announce the message of a revelation? Did the author -of the “Vestiges” find it out for himself, or did an angel from heaven -tell it him? If it be a discovery, show us, we ask, the steps through -which you have been conducted to it; if a revolution produce, for our -satisfaction, the evidence on which it rests. For we are not to accept -as data, in a question of science, idle comparisons or vague analogies, -whether produced through the intentional juggling of the sophist, or -involuntarily conjured up in the dreamy delirium of an excited fancy. - -It is one of the difficulties incident to the task of replying to any -dogmatic statement of error, that every mere annunciation of a false -fact or false principle must be met by elaborate counter-statement or -carefully constructed argument and that prolixity is thus unavoidably -entailed on the controversialist who labors to set right what his -antagonist has set wrong. The promulgator of error may be lively and -entertaining, whereas his pains-taking confutator runs no small risk of -being tedious and dull. May I, however, solicit the forbearance of the -reader, if, after already spending much time in skirmishing on ground -taken up by the enemy,—one of the disadvantages incident to the mere -defendant in a controversy of this nature,—I spend a little more in -indicating what I deem the proper ground on which the standing of the -earlier vertebrata should be decided. To the test of _brain_ I have -already referred, as all-important in the question: I would now refer to -the test of what may be termed _homological symmetry of organization_. - - - - -THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION. ITS HISTORY. - - -Though all animals be fitted by nature for the life which their instincts -teach them to pursue, naturalists have learned to recognize among them -certain aberrant and mutilated forms, in which the type of the special -class to which they belong seems distorted and degraded. They exist -as the monster _families_ of creation, just as among families there -appear from time to time monster _individuals_,—men, for instance, -without feet, or hands, or eyes, or with their feet, hands, or eyes -grievously misplaced,—sheep with their fore legs growing out of their -necks, or ducklings with their wings attached to their haunches. Among -these degraded races, that of the footless serpent, which “goeth upon -its belly,” has been long noted by the theologian as a race typical, in -its condition and nature, of an order of hopelessly degraded beings, -borne down to the dust by a clinging curse; and, curiously enough, when -the first comparative anatomists in the world give _their_ readiest -and most prominent instance of degradation among the denizens of the -natural world, it is this very order of footless reptiles that they -select. So far as the geologist yet knows, the Ophidians did not appear -during the Secondary ages, when the monarchs of creation belonged to -the reptilian division, but were ushered upon the scene in the times of -the Tertiary deposits, when the mammalian dynasty had supplanted that -of the Iguanodon and Megalosaurus. Their ill omened birth took place -when the influence of their house was on the wane, as if to set such a -stamp of utter hopelessness on its fallen condition, as that set by the -birth of a worthless or idiot heir on the fortunes of a sinking family. -The degradation of the Ophidians consists in the absence of limbs,—an -absence total in by much the greater number of their families, and -represented in others, as in the boas and pythons, by mere abortive -hinder limbs concealed in the skin; but they are thus not only _monsters -through defect of parts_, if I may so express myself, but also _monsters -through redundancy_, as a vegetative repetition of vertebra and ribs, to -the number of three or four hundred, forms the special contrivance by -which the want of these is compensated. I am also disposed to regard the -poison-bag of the venomous snakes as a mark of degradation;—it seems, -judging from analogy, to be a protective provision of a low character, -exemplified chiefly in the invertebrate families,—ants, centipedes, -and mosquitos,—spiders, wasps, and scorpions. The higher carnivora -are, we find, furnished with unpoisoned weapons, which, like those of -civilized man, are sufficiently effective, simply from the excellence -of their construction, and the power with which they are wielded, for -every purpose of assault or defence. It is only the squalid savages and -degraded boschmen of creation that have their feeble teeth and tiny -stings steeped in venom, and so made formidable. _Monstrosity through -displacement of parts_ constitutes yet another form of degradation; and -this form, united, in some instances, to the other two, we find curiously -exemplified in the geological history of the fish,—a history which, with -all its blanks and missing portions, is yet better known than that of -any other division of the vertebrata. And it is, I am convinced, from a -survey of the progress of degradation in the great ichthyic division,—a -progress recorded as “with a pen of iron in the rock for ever,”—and not -from superficial views founded on the cartilaginous or non-cartilaginous -texture of the ichthyic skeleton, that the standing of the kingly fishes -of the earlier periods is to be adequately determined. Any other mode -of survey, save the parallel mode which takes development of brain into -account, evolves, we find, nothing like principle, and lands the inquirer -in inextricable difficulties and inconsistencies. - -In all the higher non-degraded vertebrata we find a certain uniform -type of skeleton, consisting of the head, the vertebral column, and -four limbs; and these last, in the various symmetrical forms, whether -exemplified in the higher fish, the higher reptiles, the higher birds, -the higher mammals, or in man himself, occur always in a certain -determinate order. In all the mammals, the scapular bases of the fore -limbs begin opposite the eighth vertebra from the skull backwards, the -seven which go before being cervical or neck vertebræ; in the birds,—a -division of the vertebrata that, from their peculiar organization, -require longer and more flexible necks than the mammals,—the scapulars -begin at distances from the occiput, varying, according to the species, -from opposite the thirteenth to opposite the twenty-fourth vertebra; -and in the reptiles—a division which, according to Cuvier, “presents -a greater diversity of forms, characters, and modes of gait, than any -of the other two,”—they occur at almost all points, from opposite -the second vertebra, as in the frog, to opposite the thirty-third or -thirty-fourth vertebra, as in some species of plesiosaurus. But in -all,—whether mammals, birds, or undegraded reptiles,—they are so placed, -that the creatures possess _necks_, of greater or less length, as an -essential portion of their general type. The hinder limbs have also in -all these three divisions of the animal kingdom their typical place. -They occur opposite, or very nearly opposite, the posterior termination -of the abdominal cavity, and mark the line of separation between the -vertebræ of the trunk (dorsal, lumbar, and sacral) and the third and -last, or _caudal_ division of the column,—a division represented in -man by but four vertebræ, and in the crocodile by about thirty-five, -but which is found to exist, as I have already said, in all the more -perfect forms. The limbs, then, in all the symmetrical animals of the -first three classes of the vertebrata, mark the three great divisions of -the vertebral column,—the division of the _neck_, the division of the -_trunk_, and the division of the _tail_. Let us now inquire how the case -stands with the fourth and lowest class,—that of the fishes. - -In those existing Placoids that represent the fishes of the earliest -vertebrate period, the places of the double fins,—pectorals and -ventrals,—which form in the ichthyic class the true homologues of the -limbs, correspond to the places which these occupy in the symmetrical -mammals, birds, and reptiles. The scapular bases of the fore or pectoral -fins ordinarily begin opposite the twelfth or fourteenth vertebra;[27] -but they range, as in man and the mammals, in a forward direction, so -that the fins themselves are opposite the eighth or tenth. The pelvic -bases of the ventral fins are placed nearly opposite the base of the -abdomen, so that, as in all the symmetrical animals, the vent opens -between, or nearly between, those hinder limbs which the bases support. -In the Rays, which, so far as is yet known, did not appear in creation -until the Secondary ages had begun, the bases of the fore limbs, _i. -e._ pectoral fins, are attached to the lower part of a huge cervical -vertebra, nearly equal in length to _all_ the trunk vertebræ united; and -in the Chimeridæ, which also first appear in the Secondary division, -they are attached, as in the osseous fishes, to the hinder part of the -head. But in the representatives of all those Silurian Placoids yet -known, of which the family can be determined, or any thing with safety -predicated, the cervical division is found to occur as a series of -vertebræ: they present in this, as in the hinder portion of their bodies, -the homological symmetry of organization typical of that vertebral -sub-kingdom to which they belong. - -In the second great period of ichthyic existence,—that of the Old -Red Sandstone,—we find the first example, in the class of fishes, of -“monstrosity through _displacement_ of parts,” and apparently also—in -at least two genera, though the evidence on this head be not yet quite -complete—of “monstrosity through _defect_ of parts.” In all the Ganoids -of the period, with (so far as we can determine the point) only two -exceptions, the scapular bases of the fore limbs are brought forward -from their typical place opposite the base of the cervical vertebræ, and -stuck on to the occipital plate. There occurs, in consequence, in one -great order of the ichthyic class, such a departure from the symmetrical -type as would take place in a monster example of the human family in -whom the neck had been annihilated, and the arms stuck on to the back of -the head. And in the genera _Coccosteus_ and _Pterichthys_ we find the -first example of degradation through _defect_. In the _Pterichthys_ the -_hinder_ limbs seem wanting, and in the _Coccosteus_ we find no trace -of the _fore_ limbs. The one resembles a monster of the human family -born without hands, and the other a monster born without feet. Ages -and centuries pass, and long unreckoned periods come to a close; and -then, after the termination of the Palæozoic period, we see that change -taking place in the form of the ichthyic tail, to which I have already -referred, (and to which I must refer at least once more,) as singularly -illustrative of the progress of degradation. Yet other ages and centuries -pass away, during which the reptile class attains to its fullest -development, in point of size, organization, and number; and then, after -the times of the Cretaceous deposits have begun, we find yet another -remarkable monstrosity of displacement introduced among all the fishes of -one very numerous order, and among no inconsiderable proportion of the -fishes of another. In the newly-introduced Ctenoids, (_Acanthopterygii_,) -and in those families of the Cycloids which Cuvier erected into the order -_Malacopterygii sub-brachiati_, the hinder limbs are brought forward, -and stuck on to the base of the previously misplaced fore limbs. All the -four limbs, by a strange monstrosity of displacement, are crowded into -the place of the extinguished neck. And such, at the present day, is the -prevalent type among fishes. Monstrosity through _defect_ is also found -to increase; so that the snake-like _apoda_, or feet-wanting fishes, form -a numerous order, some of whose genera are devoid, as in the common eels -and the congers, of only the hinder limbs, while in others, as in the -genera Muræna and Synbranchus, both hinder and fore limbs are wanting. -In the class of fishes, as fishes now exist, we find many more evidences -of the monstrosity which results from both the misplacement and defect -of parts, than in the other three classes of the vertebrata united, and -knowing their geological history better than that of any of the others, -we know, in consequence, that the monstrosities did not appear _early_, -but _late_, and that the progress of the race as a whole, though it -still retains not a few of the higher forms, has been a progress, not of -development from the low to the high, but of degradation from the high to -the low. - -The reader may mark for himself, in the flounder, plaice, halibut, or -turbot,—fishes of a family of which there appears no trace in the earlier -periods,—an extreme example of the degradation of distortion superadded -to that of displacement. At a first glance the _limbs_ seem but to -exhibit merely the amount of natural misarrangement and misorder common -to the _Acanthopterygii_ and _Sub-brachiati_;—the base of the pectorals -are stuck on to the head, and the base of the ventrals attached to that -of the pectorals. From the circumstance, however, that the creature is -twisted half round and laid on its side, we find that at least one of the -pairs of double fins—the pectorals—perform the part of single fins,—one -projecting from the animal’s superior, the other from its inferior side, -in the way the anal and dorsal fins project from the upper and under -surfaces of other fishes; while its real dorsal and anal fins, both -developed very largely, and—in order to preserve its balance—in about an -equal degree, and wonderfully correspondent in form, perform, from their -lateral position, the functions of single fins. Indeed, at a first glance -they seem the analogues of the largely-developed pectorals of a very -different family of flat fishes,—the Rays. It would appear as if single -and double fins, by some such mutual agreement as that which, according -to the old ballad, took place between the churl of Auchtermuchty and his -wife, had agreed to exchange callings, and perform each the work of the -other. The tail, too, possesses, in consequence of the twist, not the -vertical position of other fish-tails, but is spread out horizontally, -like the tails of the cetacea. It is however, in the head of the flounder -and its cogeners that we find the more extraordinary distortions -exemplified. In order to accommodate it to the general twist, which -rendered lateral what in other fishes is dorsal and abdominal, and dorsal -and abdominal what in other fishes is lateral, one half its features had -to be twisted to the one side, and the other half to the other. The face -and cranium have undergone such a change as that which the human face and -cranium would undergo, were the eyes to be drawn towards the left ear, -and the mouth towards the right. The skull, in consequence, exhibits, in -its fixed bones, a strange Cyclopean character, unique among the families -of creation: it has its one well-marked eye orbit opening, like that of -Polyphemus, direct in the middle of the fore part of its head; while -the other, external to the cranium altogether, we find placed among the -free bones, directly over the maxillaries. And the wry mouth—twisted in -the opposite direction, as if to keep up such a balance of deformity as -that which the breast-hump of a hunchback forms to the hump behind—is in -keeping with the squint eyes. The jaws are strangely asymmetrical. In -symmetrical fishes the two bones that compose the anterior half of the -lower jaw are as perfectly correspondent in form and size as the left -hand or left foot is correspondent, in the human subject, to the _right_ -hand or _right_ foot; but not such their character in the flounder. -The one is a broad, short, nearly straight bone; the other is larger, -narrower, and bent like a bow; and while the one contains only from four -to six teeth, the other contains from thirty to thirty-five. Scarcely in -the entire ichthyic kingdom are there any two jaws that less resemble -one another than the two halves of the jaw of the flounder, turbot, -halibut, or plaice. The intermaxillary bones are equally ill matched: -the one is fully twice the size of the other, and contains about thrice -as many teeth. That bilateral symmetry of the skeleton which is so -_invariable_ a characteristic of the vertebrata, that ordinary observers, -who have eyes for only the rare and the uncommon, fail to remark it, -but which a Newton could regard as so wonderful, and so thoroughly in -harmony with the uniformity of the planetary system, has scarce any -place in the asymmetrical head of the flounder. There exists in some of -our north country fishing villages an ancient apologue, which, though -not remarkable for point or meaning, at least serves to show that this -peculiar example of distortion the rude fishermen of a former age were -observant enough to detect. Once on a time the fishes met, it is said, to -elect a king; and their choice fell on the herring. “The herring king!” -contemptuously exclaimed the flounder, a fish of consummate vanity, and -greatly piqued on this occasion that its own presumed claims should have -been overlooked; “where, then, am I?” And straightway, in punishment of -its conceit and rebellion, “its eyes turned to the back of its head.” -Here is there a story palpably founded on the degradation of misplacement -and distortion, which originated ages ere the naturalist had recognized -either the term or the principle. - -It would be an easy matter for an ingenious theorist, not much disposed -to distinguish between the minor and the master laws of organized -being, to get up quite as unexceptionable a theory of degradation as -of development. The one-eyed, one-legged Chelsea pensioner, who had a -child, unborn at the time, laid to his charge, agreed to recognize his -relationship to the little creature, if, on its coming into the world, -it was found to have a green patch over its eye, and a wooden leg. -And, in order to construct a hypothesis of progressive degradation, -the theorist has but to take for granted the transmission to other -generations of defects and compensating redundancies at once as extreme -and accidental as the loss of eyes or limbs, and the acquisition of -timber legs or green patches. The snake, for instance, he might regard as -a saurian, that, having accidentally lost its limbs, exerted itself to -such account throughout a series of generations, in making up for their -absence, as to spin out for itself, by dint of writhing and wriggling, -rather more than a hundred additional vertebræ, and to alter, for -purposes of greater flexibility, the structure of all the rest. And as -fishes, when nearly stunned by a blow, swim for a few seconds on their -side, he might regard the flounders as a race of half-stunned fishes, -previously degraded by the misplacement of their limbs, that, instead of -recovering themselves from the blow given to some remote parent of the -family, had expended all their energies in twisting their mouths round -to what chanced to be the under side on which they were laid, and their -eyes to what chanced to be the upper, and that made their pectorals -serve for anal and dorsal fins, and their anal and dorsal fins serve -for pectorals. But while we must recognize in nature certain laws of -disturbance, if I may so speak, through which, within certain limits, -traits which are the result of habit or circumstance in the parents are -communicated to their offspring, we would err as egregiously, did we -take only these into account, without noting that infinitely stronger -antagonist law of reproduction and restoration which, by ever gravitating -towards the original type, preserves the integrity of races, as the -astronomer would, who, in constructing his orrery, recognized only that -law of propulsion through which the planets speed through the heavens, -without taking into account that antagonist law of gravitation which, -by maintaining them in their orbits, insures the regularity of their -movements. The law of restoration would recover and right the stunned -fish laid on its side; the law of reproduction would give limbs to the -offspring of the mutilated saurian. We have evidence, in the extremeness -of the degradation in these cases, that it cannot be a degradation -hereditarily derived from accident. Nature is, we find, active, not in -perpetuating the accidental wooden legs and green patches of ancestors -in their descendants, but in restoring to the offspring the true limbs -and eyes which the parents have lost. It is, however, not with a theory -of hereditary degradation, but a hypothesis of gradual development, that -I have at present to deal; and what I have to establish as proper to -the present stage of my argument is, that this principle of degradation -really exists, and that the history of its progress in creation bears -directly against the assumption that the earlier vertebrata were of a -lower type than the vertebrata of the same ichthyic class which exist -now.[28] - -The progress of the ichthyic tail, as recorded in geologic history, -corresponds with that of the ichthyic limbs. And as in the existing -state of things we find fishes that _nearly_ represent, in this respect, -all the great geologic periods,—I say _nearly_, not _fully_, for I -am acquainted with no fish adequately representative of the period -of the Old Red Sandstone,—it may be well to cast a glance over the -_contemporary_ series, as illustrative of the _consecutive_ one. In those -Placoids of the shark family that to a large brain unite homological -symmetry of organization, and represent the fishes of the first period, -we find, as I have already shown, that the vertebræ gradually diminish -in the caudal division of the column, until they terminate in a point,—a -circumstance in which they resemble not merely the betailed reptiles, -but also all the higher mammiferous quadrupeds, and even man himself. -And it is this peculiarity, stamped upon the less destructible portions -of the framework of the tail,—vertebræ and processes,—rather than the -one-sided or heterocercal form of the surrounding fin, composed of but -a mucoidal substance, that constitutes its grand characteristic; seeing -that in some Placoid genera, such as _Scyllium Stellare_, the terminal -portion of the fin is scarce less largely developed above than below, -and that in others, as in most of the Ray family, the under lobe of the -fin is wholly wanting. In the sturgeon,—one of the few Ganoids of the -present time,—we become sensible of a peculiar modification in this -heterocercal type of tail: the lower lobe is, we find, composed, as in -_Spinax_ and _Scyllium_, of rays exclusively; while through the centre -of the upper lobe there runs an acutely angular patch of lozenge-shaped -plates, like that which runs through the centre of the double fins of -_Dipterus_ and the Cœlacanths. But while in the sharks the gradually -diminishing vertebræ stand out in bold relief, and form the thickest -portion of the tail, that which represents them in the sturgeon (the -angular patch) is slim and thin,—slimmer in the middle than even at the -sides;—in part a consequence, no doubt, of the want, in this fish, of -solid vertebræ, but a consequence also of the extreme attenuation of the -nervous cord, in its prolongation into the lobe of the fin. Further, -the rays of the tail—its peculiarly ichthyic portion, which are purely -mucoidal in _Spinax_, _Scyllium_, and _Cestracion_—have become osseous in -the sturgeon. The _fish_ has _set_ and become _fixed_, as cement sets in -a building, or colors are fixed by a mordant. And it is worthy of special -remark that, correspondent with the peculiarly _ichthyic_ development -of tail in this fish, we find the prevailing ichthyic displacement of -the fore limbs. Again, in the _Lepidosteus_, another of the true Ganoids -which still exist, the internal angle of the upper lobe of the tail -wholly disappears, and with the internal angle the prolongation of the -nervous cord. Still, however, it is what the tail of the sturgeon would -become were the angular patch to be obliterated, and rays substituted -instead,—it is a tail set on awry. And in this fish also we find the -ichthyic displacement of fore limb. One step more, and we arrive at -the homocercal or equal-lobed tail, which seems to attain to its most -extreme type in those fishes in which, as in the perch and flounder, the -last vertebral joint, either very little or very abruptly diminished -in size, expands into broad processes without homologue in the higher -animals, on which the caudal rays rest as their bases. And in by much the -larger proportion of these fishes all the four limbs are slung round the -neck;—they at once exhibit the homocercal tail in its broadest type, and -displacement of limb in its most extreme form. - -[Illustration: Fig. 50. - -TAIL OF OSTEOLEPIS.] - -[Illustration: Fig. 51. - -TAIL OF LEPIDOSTEUS OSSEUS.] - -Now, in tracing the geologic history of the ichthyic tail, we find these -several steps or gradations from the heterocercal to the homocercal, -represented by periods and formations. The Siluran periods may be -regarded as representative of that true heterocercal tail of the -Placoids, exemplified in _Spinax_, (page 172, fig. 48,) and _Cestracion_, -(page 177, fig. 49.) The whole caudal portion of this latter animal, -commencing immediately behind the ventrals, is, as becomes a true -tail, slim, when compared with its trunk; the vertebræ are of very -considerable solidity; the rays mucoidal; and where the spinal column -runs into the terminal fin, it takes such an upward turn as that which -the horse-jockey imparts, by the process of _nicking_, to the tails of -the hunter and the racehorse. And with the heterocercal tail, so true in -its homologies to the tails of the higher vertebrata, we find associated, -as has been shown, the true homological position of the fore limbs. -With the commencement of the Old Red Sandstone the ganoidal tail first -presents itself; and we become sensible of a change in the structure -of the attached fin, similar to that exemplified in the caudal rays of -the sturgeon. As shown by the irregularly-angular patch of scales which -in all the true Cœlacanths, and almost all the Dipterians,[29] runs -through the _upper_ lobe of the fin, and terminates in a point, (see -fig. 50,) it must have possessed the gradually diminishing vertebræ, or -a diminishing spinal cord, their analogue; but the rays, fairly _set_, -as their state of keeping in the rocks certify, exist as narrow oblong -plates of solid bone; and their anterior edges are strengthened by a line -of osseous defences, that pass from scales into rays. And in harmonious -accompaniment with this fairly _stereotyped_ edition of the ichthyic -tail, we find, in the fishes in which it appears, the first instance of -displacement of _limb_,—the bases of the pectorals being removed from -their original position, and stuck on to the nape of the neck. It may -be remarked, in passing, that in the tails of two ganoidal genera of -this period,—the _Coccosteus_ and _Pterichthys_,—the analogies traceable -lie rather in the direction of the tails of the Rays than in those of -the Sharks; and that one of these, the _Coccosteus_, seems, as has been -already intimated, to have had no pectorals, while it is doubtful whether -in the _Pterichthys_ the pectorals were not attached to the shoulder, -instead on the head. In the Carboniferous and Permian systems there -occur, especially among the numerous species of the genus _Palæoniscus_, -tails of the type exemplified by the internal angle of the tail of -the sturgeon: the lozenge-shaped scales run in acutely angular patches -through their upper lobes; but such is their extreme flatness, as shown -by the disposition of the enamelled covering, that it appears exceedingly -doubtful whether any vertebral column ran beneath;—they seem but to have -covered greatly diminished prolongations of the spinal cord. In the -base of the Secondary division,—another long stage towards the existing -state of things,—we find, with the homocercal tail, which now appears -for the first time, numerous tails like that of the _Lepidosteus_, (fig. -51,) of an intermediate type;—they are rather tails set on awry than -truly heterocercal. The diminished cord has disappeared from among the -fin rays. In the numerous Lepidoid genus, and the genera _Semionotus_ -and _Tetra gonolepis_,—all ganoidal fishes of the Secondary period—this -intermediate style is very marked; while in their contemporaries of the -genera _Uræus_, _Microdon_, and _Pycnodus_, we find the earliest examples -of true homocercal tails. And in the Ctenoids and Cycloids of the Chalk -the homocercal tail receives its fullest development. It finds bases for -its rays in broad non-homological processes, that spread out behind -abruptly-terminating vertebræ, (fig. 52,) in the same period in which, -by a strange process of degradation, the four ichthyic limbs are first -gathered into a cluster, and hung about the neck.[30] - -[Illustration: Fig. 52. - -TAIL OF PERCH.] - -I am aware that by some very distinguished comparative anatomists, among -the rest Professor Owen, the attachment, so common among fishes, of the -scapular arch and the fore limbs to the occipital bone, is regarded, -not as a displacement, but as a normal and primary condition of the -parts. Recognizing in the scapular bones the _ribs_ of the occipital -_centrum_, the anatomists of this school of course consider them, when -found articulated to the occiput, as in their proper and original place, -and as in a state of natural dislocation when removed, as in all the -reptiles, birds, and mammals, farther down. We find Professor Oken -borrowing support to his hypothesis from this view. The limbs, he tells -us, are simply ribs, that in the course of ages have been set free, and -have become by development what they now are. And it is unquestionably -a curious and interesting fact, that there are certain animals, such -as the crocodile, in which every centrum of the vertebral column, and -of every _vertebra_ of the head, has its ribs or rib-like appendages, -with the exception of the occipital _centrum_. And it is another equally -curious fact, that there is another certain class of animals, such as -the osseous horn-covered fishes, with the Sturionidæ, Salamandroidei, -and at least one genus among the Placoids, (the Chimæroidei,) in which -this occipital centrum bears as its _ribs_ the scapular bones, with -their appendages the fore limbs. It is the _centrum_ without _ribs_ -that is selected in these animals as the centrum to which the scapular -_ribs_ should be attached. Be it remembered, however, that while it -is unquestionably the part of the comparative anatomist to determine -the relations and homologies of those parts of which all animals are -composed, and to interpret the significancy in the scale of being of the -various modes and forms in which they exist, it is as unquestionably the -part of the geologist to declare their history, and the order of their -succession _in time_. The questions which fall to be determined by the -geologist and anatomist are entirely different. It is the function of the -anatomist to decide regarding the high and the low, the typical and the -aberrant; and so, beginning at what is lowest or highest in the scale, -or least or most symmetrical in type, he passes through the intermediate -forms to the opposite extreme: and such is the order natural and proper -to his science. It is the vocation of the geologist, on the other hand, -to decide regarding the early and the late. It is with _time_, not with -_rank_, that he has to deal. Nor is it in the least surprising that he -should seem at issue with the comparative anatomist, when, in classifying -his groupes of organized being according to the periods of their -appearance, there is an order of arrangement forced upon him, different -from that which, on an entirely different principle, the anatomist -pursues. Nor can there be a better illustration of a collision of this -kind, than the one furnished by the case in point. That peculiarity of -structure which, as the lowest in the vertebral skeleton, is to the -comparative anatomist the primary and original one, and which, as such, -furnishes him with his starting point, is to the geologist not primary, -but secondary, simply because it was not primary, but secondary, in the -order of its occurrence. It belongs, so far as we yet know, not to the -_first_ period of vertebrate existence, but to the _second_; and appears -in geologic history as does that savage state which certain philosophers -have deemed the original condition of the human species, in the history -of civilization, when read by the light of the Revealed Record, under the -shadow of those gigantic ruins of the East that date only a few centuries -after the Flood. It is found to be a _degradation_ first introduced -during the lapse of an intermediate age,—not the normal condition which -obtained during the long cycles of the primal one. It indicates, not the -starting point from which the race of creation began, but the stage of -retrogradation beyond it at which the pilgrims who set out in a direction -opposite to that of the goal first arrived.[31] - -This fact of degradation, strangely indicated in geologic history, with -reference to all the greater divisions of the animal kingdom, has often -appeared to me a surpassingly wonderful one. We can see but imperfectly, -in those twilight depths to which all such subjects necessarily belong; -and yet at times enough does appear to show us what a very superficial -thing infidelity may be. The general advance in creation has been -incalculably great. The lower divisions of the vertebrata preceded -the higher;—the fish preceded the reptile, the reptile preceded the -bird, the bird preceded the mammiferous quadruped, and the mammiferous -quadruped preceded man. And yet, is there one of these great divisions -in which, in at least some prominent feature, the present, through this -mysterious element of degradation, is not inferior to the past? There -was a time in which the ichthyic form constituted the highest example -of life; but the seas during that period did not swarm with fish of the -degraded type. There was, in like manner, a time when all the carnivora -and all the herbivorous quadrupeds were represented by reptiles; but -there are no such magnificent reptiles on the earth now as reigned over -it then. There was an after time, when birds seem to have been the sole -representatives of the warm-blooded animals; but we find, from the prints -of their feet left in sandstone, that the tallest men might have - - “Walked under their huge legs, and peeped about.” - -Further, there was an age when the quadrupedal mammals were the magnates -of creation; but it was an age in which the sagacious elephant, now -extinct, save in the comparatively small Asiatic and African circles, and -restricted to two species, was the inhabitant of every country of the Old -World, from its southern extremity to the frozen shores of the northern -ocean; and when vast herds of a closely allied and equally colossal genus -occupied its place in the New. And now, in the times of the high-placed -human dynasty,—of those formally delegated monarchs of creation, whose -nature it is to look behind them upon the past, and before them, with -mingled fear and hope, upon the future,—do we not as certainly see the -elements of a state of ever-sinking degradation, which is to exist for -ever, as of a state of ever-increasing perfectibility, to which there is -to be no end? Nay, of a higher race, of which we know but little, this -much we at least know, that they long since separated into two great -classes,—that of the “elect angels,” and of “angels, that kept not their -first estate.” - - - - -EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA. ANCIENT TREE. - - -After dwelling at such length on the earlier fishes, it may seem scarce -necessary to advert to their lower contemporaries the mollusca,—that -great division of the animal kingdom which Cuvier places second in the -descending order, in his survey of the entire series, and first among the -invertebrates; and which Oken regards as the division out of which the -immediately preceding class of the vertebral animals have been developed. -“The fish,” he says, “is to be viewed as a mussel, from between whose -shells a monstrous abdomen has grown out.” There is, however, a -peculiarity in the molluscan group of the Silurian system, to which I -must be permitted briefly to refer, as, to employ the figure of Sterne, -it presents “two handles” of an essentially different kind, and as in all -such two-handled cases, the mere special pleader is sure to avail himself -of only the handle which best suits his purpose for the time. - -Cuvier’s first and highest class of the molluscs is formed of what are -termed the Cephalopods,—a class of creatures possessed of great freedom -of motion: they can walk, swim, and seize their prey; they have what even -the lowest fishes such as the lancelet, want,—a brain enclosed in a -cartilaginous cavity in the head, and perfectly formed organs of sight; -they possess, too, what is found in no other mollusc,—organs of hearing; -and in sagacity and activity they prove more than matches for the smaller -fishes, many of which they overmaster and devour. With this highest -class there contrasts an exceedingly low molluscous class at the bottom -of the scale, or, at least, at what is now the bottom of the scale; for -they constitute Cuvier’s _fifth_ class; while his _sixth_ and last, the -Cirrhopodes, has been since withdrawn from the molluscs altogether, -and placed in a different division of the animal kingdom. And this low -class, the Brachiopods, are creatures that, living in bivalve shells, -unfurnished with spring hinges to throw them open, and always fast -anchored to the same spot, can but thrust forth, through the interstitial -chinks of their prison-houses, spiral arms, covered with cilia, and -winnow the water for a living. Now, it so happens that the molluscan -group of the Silurian system is composed chiefly of these two extreme -classes. It contains some of the other forms; but they are few in number, -and give no character to the rocks in which they occur. There was nothing -by which I was more impressed, in a visit to a Silurian region, than that -in its ancient graveyards, as in those of the present day, though in a -different sense, the high and the low should so invariably meet together. -It is, however, not impossible that, in even the present state of things, -a similar union of the extreme forms of the marine mollusca may be taking -place in deep-sea deposits. Most of the intermediate forms provided -with shells capable of preservation, such as the shelled Gasteropoda -and the Conchifers, are either littoral, or restricted to comparatively -small depths; whereas the Brachiopoda are deep-sea shells; and the -Cephalopoda may be found voyaging far from land, in the upper strata -of the sea above them. Even in the seas that surround our own island, -the Brachiopodous molluscs—terebratula and crania—have been found, ever -since deep-sea dredging became common, to be not very rare shells; and in -the Mediterranean, where they are less rare still, fleets of Argonauts, -the representatives of a highly organized family of the Cephalopods, to -which it is now believed the Bellerophon of the Palæozoic rocks belonged, -may be seen skimming along the surface, with sail and oar, high over the -profound depths in which they lie. And, of course, when death comes, that -comes to high and low, the remains of both Argonauts and Brachiopods -must lie together at the bottom, in beds almost totally devoid of the -intermediate forms. - -Now, the author of the “Vestiges,” in maintaining his hypothesis, -suspends it on the handle furnished him by the immense abundance of the -Silurian Brachiopods. The Silurian period, he says, exhibits “a scanty -and most defective development of life; so much so, that Mr. Lyell calls -it, _par excellence_, the age of Brachiopods, with reference to the by -no means exalted bivalve shell-fish which forms its predominant class. -Such being the actual state of the case, I must persist in describing -even the fauna of this age, which we now know was not the first, as, -generally speaking, such a humble exhibition of the animal kingdom as -we might expect, upon the development theory, to find at an early stage -of the history of organization.” The reader will at once discern the -fallacy here. The Silurian period was peculiarly an age of Brachiopods, -for in no other period were Brachiopods so numerous, specifically or -individually, or of such size or importance; whereas it was not _so -peculiarly_ an age of Cephalopods, for these we find introduced in still -greater numbers during the Liasic and Oolitic periods. In 1848, when -Professor Edward Forbes edited the Palæontological map of Britain and -Ireland, which forms one of the very admirable series of “Johnstone’s -Physical Atlas,” the Cephalopods of the Silurian rocks of England and -Wales were estimated at forty-eight species, and the Brachiopods at -one hundred and fifty; whereas at the same date there were two hundred -and five Cephalopods of the Oolitic formations enumerated, and but -fifty-four Brachiopods. It is the molluscs of the inferior, not those -of the superior class, that constitute (with their contemporaries the -Trilobites) the characteristic fossils of the Silurian rocks; and hence -the propriety of the distinctive name suggested by Sir Charles Lyell. -But in the development question, what we have specially to consider is, -not the _numbers_ of the low, but the _standing_ of the high. A country -may be distinctively a country of flocks and herds, or a country of -the carnivorous mammalia, or, like New South Wales or the Galapagos, a -country of marsupial animals or of reptiles. Its human inhabitants may -be merely a few hunters or shepherds, too inconsiderable in numbers, and -too much like their brethren elsewhere, to give it any peculiar standing -as a home of men. But in estimating the highest point in the scale to -which the animal kingdom has attained within its limits, it is of its few -men, not of its many beasts, that we must take note. And the point to be -specially decided regarding the organisms of the Silurian system, in this -question, is, not the proportion in _number_ which the lower forms bore -to the higher, but the exact _rank_ which the higher bore in the scale -of existence. Did the system furnish but a single Cephalopod or a single -fish, we would yet have as certainly to determine that the chain of being -reached as high as the Cephalopod or the fish, as if the remains of these -creatures constituted its most abundant fossils. The chain of animal -life reached quite as high on the evening of the sixth day of creation, -when the human family was restricted to a single pair, as it does now, -when our statists reckon up by millions the inhabitants of the greater -capitals of the world; and the special pleader who, in asserting the -contrary, would insist on determining the point, not by the _rank_ of the -men of Eden, but by the _number_ of minnows or sticklebacks that swarmed -in its rivers, might be perhaps deemed ingenious in his expedients, but -certainly not very judicious in the use of them. It is worthy of remark, -however, that the Brachiopods of those Palæozoic periods in which the -group occupied such large space in creation, consisted of greatly larger -and more important animals than any which it contains in the present day. -It has yielded to what geological history shows to be the common fate, -and sunk into a state of degradation and decline. - -The geological history of the vegetable, like that of the animal kingdom, -has been pressed into the service of the development hypothesis; and -certainly their respective courses, both in actual arrangement and in -their relation to human knowledge, seem wonderfully alike. It is not -much more than twenty years since it was held that no exogenous plant -existed during the Carboniferous period. The frequent occurrence of -Coniferæ in the Secondary deposits had been conclusively determined -from numerous specimens; but, founding on what seemed a large amount of -negative evidence, it was concluded that, previous to the Liasic age, -nature had failed to achieve a tree, and that the rich vegetation of the -Coal Measures had been exclusively composed of magnificent immaturities -of the vegetable kingdom,—of gigantic ferns and club-mosses, that -attained to the size of forest trees, and of thickets of the swamp-loving -horsetail family of plants, that well nigh rivalled in height those -forests of masts which darken the rivers of our great commercial cities. -Such was the view promulgated by M. Adolphe Brongniart; and it may be -well to remark that, so far as the evidence on which it was based was -positive, the view was sound. It _is_ a fact, that inferior orders of -plants were developed in those ages in a style which, in their present -state of degradation, they never exemplify: they took their place, not, -as now, among the pigmies and abortions of creation, but among its -tallest and goodliest productions. It is, however, _not_ a fact that they -were the highest vegetable forms of their time. True exogenous trees -also existed in great numbers and of vast size. In various localities -in the coal fields of both England and Scotland,—such as Lennel Braes -and Allan Bank in Berwickshire, High-Heworth, Fellon, Gateshead, and -Wideopen near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in quarries to the west of the -city of Durham,—the most abundant fossils of the system are its true -woods. In the quarry of Craigleith, near Edinburgh, three huge trunks -have been laid open during the last twenty years, within the space of -about a hundred and fifty yards, and two equally massy trunks, within -half that space, in the neighboring quarry of Granton, all low in the -Coal Measures. They lie diagonally athwart the strata,—at an angle of -about thirty,—with the nether and weightier portion of their boles -below, like snags in the Mississippi; and we infer, from their general -direction, that the stream to which they reclined must have flowed from -nearly north-east to south-west. The current was probably that of a -noble river, which reflected on its broad bosom the shadow of many a -stately tree. With the exception of one of the Granton specimens, which -still retains its strong-kneed roots, they are all mere portions of -trees, rounded at both ends as if by attrition or decay; and yet one -of these portions measures about six feet in diameter by sixty-one feet -in length; another four feet in diameter by seventy feet in length; and -the others, of various thickness, but all bulky enough to equal the -masts of large vessels, range in length from thirty-six to forty-seven -feet. It seems strange to one who derives his supply of domestic fuel -from the Dalkeith and Falkirk coal-fields, that the Carboniferous -flora could ever have been described as devoid of trees. I can scarce -take up a piece of coal from beside my study fire, without detecting -in it fragments of carbonized wood, which almost always exhibit the -characteristic longitudinal fibres, and not unfrequently the medullary -rays. Even the trap-rocks of the district enclose, in some instances, -their masses of lignite, which present in their transverse sections, -when cut by the lapidary, the net-like reticulations of the coniferæ. -The fossil botanist, who devoted himself chiefly to the study of -microscopic structure, would have to decide, from the facts of the case, -not that trees were absent during the Carboniferous period, but that, -in consequence of their having been present in amazing numbers, their -remains had entered more palpably and extensively into the composition -of coal than those of any other vegetable.[32] So far as is yet known, -they all belonged to the two great divisions of the coniferous family, -araucarians and pines. The huge trees of Craigleith and Granton were of -the former tribe, and approximate more nearly to _Altingia excelsa_, the -Norfolk-Island pine,—a noble araucarian, that rears its proud head from a -hundred and sixty to two hundred feet over the soil, and exhibits a green -and luxuriant breadth of foliage rare among the Coniferæ,—than any other -living tree. - -[Illustration: Fig. 53. - -ALTINGIA EXCELSA, (NORFOLK-ISLAND PINE.) - -_From a young specimen in the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh._] - -Beyond the Coal Measures terrestrial plants become extremely rare. The -fossil botanist, on taking leave of the lower Carboniferous beds, quits -the land, and sets out to sea; and it seems in no way surprising, that -the specimens which he there adds to his herbarium should consist mainly -of _Fucaceæ_ and _Conferveæ_. The development hypothesis can borrow no -support from the simple fact, that while a high terrestrial vegetation -grows upon dry land, only algæ grow in the sea; and even did the Old Red -Sandstone and Silurian systems furnish, as their vegetable organisms, -fucoids exclusively, the evidence would amount to no more than simply -this, that the land of the Palæozoic periods produced plants of the land, -and the sea of the Palæozoic periods produced plants of the sea. - -In the Upper Old Red Sandstone,—the formation of the _Holoptychius_ -and the _Stagonolepis_,—the only vegetable remains which I have yet -seen are of a character so exceedingly obscure and doubtful, that all -I could venture to premise regarding them is, that they _seem_ to be -the fragments of sorely comminuted fucoids. In the formation of the -Middle Old Red,—that of the Cephalaspis and the gigantic lobster of -Carmylie,—the vegetable remains are at once more numerous and better -defined. I have detected among the gray micaceous sandstones of -Forfarshire a fucoid furnished with a thick, squat stem, that branches -into numerous divergent leaflets or fronds, of a slim parallelogrammical, -grass-like form, and which, as a whole, somewhat resembles the scourge -of cords attached to a handle with which a boy whips his top. And -Professor Fleming describes a still more remarkable vegetable organism -of the same formation, “which, occurring in the form of circular, flat -patches, composed each of numerous smaller contiguous circular pieces, is -altogether not unlike what might be expected to result from a compressed -berry, such as the bramble or rasp.” In the Lower Old Red,—the formation -of the _Coccosteus_ and _Cheiracanthus_,—the remains of fucoids are more -numerous still. There are gray slaty beds among the rocks of Navity, that -owe their fissile character mainly to their layers of carbonized weed; -and “among the rocks of Sandy-Bay, near Thurso,” says Mr. Dick, “the -dark impressions of large fucoids are so numerous, that they remind one -of the interlaced boughs and less bulky pine-trunks that lie deep in our -mosses.” A portion of a stem from the last locality, which I owe to Mr. -Dick, measures three inches in diameter; but the ill-compacted cellular -tissue of the algæ is but indifferently suited for preservation; and so -it exists as a mere coaly film, scarcely half a line in thickness. - -The most considerable collection of the Lower Old Red fucoids which -I have yet seen is that of the Rev. Charles Clouston of Sandwick, in -Orkney,—a skilful cultivator of geological science, who has specially -directed his palæontological inquiries on the vegetable remains of the -flagstones of his district, as the department in which most remained -to be done; but his numerous specimens only serve to show what a -poverty-stricken flora that of the ocean of the Lower Old Red Sandstone -must have been. I could detect among them but two species of plants;—the -one an imperfectly preserved vegetable, more nearly resembling a -club-moss than aught else which I have seen, but which bore on its -surface, instead of the well-marked scales of the _Lycopodiaceæ_, -irregular rows of tubercles, that, when elongated in the profile, as -sometimes happens, might be mistaken for minute, ill-defined leaves; -the other, a smooth-stemmed fucoid, existing on the stone in most cases -as a mere film, in which, however, thickly-set longitudinal fibres are -occasionally traceable, and which may be always distinguished from the -other by its sharp-edged outline, and from the circumstance that its -stems continue to retain the same diameter for considerable distances, -after throwing off at acute angles numerous branches nearly as bulky -as themselves. In a Thurso specimen, about two feet in length, which I -owe to the kindness of Mr. Dick, there are stems continuous throughout, -that, though they ramify in that space into from six to eight branches, -are nearly as thick atop as at bottom. They are the remains, in all -probability, of a long, flexible weed, that may have somewhat resembled -those fucoids of the intertropical seas, which, streaming slantwise -in the tide, rise not unfrequently to the surface in from fifteen to -twenty fathoms of water; and as, notwithstanding their obscurity, -they are among the most perfect specimens of their class yet found, -and contrast with the stately araucarians of the Coal Measures, in a -style which cannot fail to delight the heart of every assertor of the -development hypothesis, I present them to the reader from Mr. Dick’s -specimen, in a figure (fig. 54) which, however slight its interest, has -at least the merit of being true. The stone exhibits specimens of the two -species of Mr. Clouston’s collection,—the sharp-edged, finely-striated -weed, _a_, and that roughened by tubercles, _b_; which, besides the -distinctive character manifested on its surface, differs from the other -in rapidly losing breath with every branch which it throws off, and, -in consequence, runs soon to a point. The cut on the opposite page -(fig. 55) represents not inadequately the cortical peculiarities of -the two species when best preserved. The surface of the tubercled one -will perhaps remind the Algologist of the knobbed surface of the thong -or receptacle of _Himanthalia lorea_, a recent fucoid, common on the -western coast of Scotland, but rare on the east. An Orkney specimen -lately sent me by Mr. William Watt, from a quarry at Skaill, has much -the appearance of one of the smaller ferns, such as the moor-worts, sea -spleen-worts, or maiden-hairs. It exists as an impression in diluted -black, on a ground of dark gray, and has so little sharpness of outline, -that, like minute figures in oil-paintings, it seems more distinct when -viewed at arm’s length than when microscopically examined; but enough -remains to show that it must have been a terrestrial, not a marine -plant. The accompanying print (fig. 56) may be regarded as no unfaithful -representation of this unique fossil its state of imperfect keeping. -The vegetation of the Silurian system, from its upper beds down till -where we reach the zero of life, is, like that of the Old Red Sandstone, -almost exclusively fucoidal. In the older fossiliferous deposits of the -system in Sweden, Russia, the Lake Districts of England, Canada, and -the United States, fucoids occur, to the exclusion, so far as is yet -known, of every other vegetable form; and such is their abundance in some -localities, that they render the argillaceous rocks in which they lie -diffused, capable of being fired as an alum slate, and exist in others -as seams of a compact anthracite, occasionally used as fuel. They also -occur in those districts of Wales in which the place and sequence of the -various Silurian formations were first determined, though apparently -in a state of keeping from which little can be premised regarding -their original forms. Sir Roderick Murchison sums up his notice of the -vegetable remains of the system in the province whence it derives its -name, by stating that he had submitted his specimens to “Mr. Robert Brown -and Dr. Greville, and that neither of these eminent botanists were able -to say much more regarding them than that they were fucoid-like bodies.” - -[Illustration: Fig. 54. - -FUCOIDS OF THE LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE. - -a. _Smooth-stemmed species._ - -b. _Tubercled species._ - -(One sixth nat. size, linear.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 55. - -a. _Smooth-stemmed species._ - -b. _Tubercled species._ - -(Natural size.)] - -Such are the vegetable organisms of the Old Red Sandstone and Silurian -systems: they are the remains of the ancient marine plants of ancient -marine deposits and, as such, lend quite as little support to the -development hypothesis as the recent algæ of our existing seas. The -case, stated in its most favorable form, amounts simply to this,—that -at certain early periods,—represented by the Upper and Lower Silurian -and the Old Red deposits,—the seas produced sea-plants; and that, at -a certain later period,—that of the Carboniferous system,—the land -produced land-plants. But even this, did it stand alone, would be a _too_ -favorable statement. I have seen, on one occasion, the fisherman bring -up with his nets, far in the open sea, a wild rose-bush, that, though -it still bore its characteristic thorns, was encrusted with serpula, -and laden with pendulous lobularia. It had been swept from its original -habitat by some river in flood, that had undermined and torn down the -bank on which it grew; and after floating about, mayhap for months, had -become so saturated with water, that it could float no longer. And in -that single rose-bush, dragged up to the light and air from its place -among Sertularia, Flustra, Serpula, and the deep-sea fucoids, I had as -certain an evidence of the existence of the dicotyledonous plant, as if -I had all the families of the Rosaecæ before me. Now, we are furnished -by the more ancient formations with evidence regarding the existence -of a terrestrial vegetation, such as that which the rose-bush in this -case supplied. We cannot expect that the proofs should be numerous. In -the chart of the Pacific attached to the better editions of “Cook’s -Voyages,” there are several notes along the tract of the great navigator, -that indicate where, in mid ocean, trees or fragments of trees had been -picked up. These entries, however, are but few, though they belong to all -the three voyages together: if I remember aright, there are only five -entries in all,—two in the Northern, and three in the Southern Pacific. -The floating shrub or tree, at a great distance from land, is of rare -occurrence in even the present scene of things, though the breadth of -land be great, and trees numerous; and in the times of the Silurian and -Old Red Sandstone systems, when the breadth of land was apparently _not_ -great, and trees and shrubs, in consequence, _not_ numerous, it must -have been of rarer occurrence still. We learn, however, from Sir Charles -Lyell, that in the “Hamilton group of the United States,—a series of -beds that corresponds in many of its fossils with the Ludlow rocks of -England,—plants allied to the _Lepidodendra_ of the Carboniferous type -are abundant; and that in the lower Devonian strata of New York the same -plants occur associated with ferns.” And I am able to demonstrate, from -an interesting fossil at present before me, that there existed in the -period of the Lower Old Red Sandstone vegetable forms of a class greatly -higher than either _Lepidodendra_ or ferns. - -[Illustration: Fig. 56. - -FERN? OF THE LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE. - -(Natural size.)] - -[Illustration: Fig. 57. - -LIGNITE OF THE LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE. - -(One third nat. size, linear.)] - -In my little work on the Old Red Sandstone, I have referred to an -apparent lignite of the Lower Old Red of Cromarty, which presented, when -viewed by the microscope, marks of the internal fibre. The surface, -when under the glass, resembled, I said, a bundle of horse-hairs lying -stretched in parallel lines: and in this specimen alone, it was added, -had I found aught in the Lower Old Red Sandstone approaching to proof of -the existence of dry land. About four years ago I had this lignite put -stringently to the question by Mr. Sanderson, and deeply interesting was -the result. I must first mention, however, that there cannot rest the -shadow of a doubt regarding the place of the organism in the geologic -scale. It is unequivocally a fossil of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. I -found it partially embedded, with many other nodules half-disinterred -by the sea, in an ichthyolitic deposit, a few hundred yards to the -east of the town of Cromarty, which occurs more than four hundred -feet over the Great Conglomerate base of the system. A nodule that -lay immediately beside it contained a well-preserved specimen of the -_Coccosteus Decipiens_; and in the nodule in which the lignite itself -is contained, (fig. 57,) the practised eye may detect a scattered group -of scales of _Diplacanthus_, a scarce less characteristic organism of -the lower formation. And what, asks the reader, is the character of this -very ancient vegetable,—the most ancient, by three whole formations, -that has presented its internal structure to the microscope? Is it as -low in the scale of development as in the geological scale? Does this -venerable Adam of the forest appear, like the Adam of the infidel, as a -squalid, ill-formed savage, with a rugged shaggy nature, which it would -require the suggestive necessities of many ages painfully to lick into -civilization? Or does it appear rather like the Adam of the poet and the -theologian, independent, in its instantaneously-derived perfection, of -all after development? - - “Adam, the goodliest man of men since born - His sons.” - -Is its tissue vascular or cellular, or, like that of some of the -cryptogamia, intermediate? Or what, in fine, is the nature and bearing -of its mute but emphatic testimony, on that doctrine of progressive -development of late so strangely resuscitated? - -In the first place, then, this ancient fossil is a true wood,—a -Dicotyledonous or Polycotyledonous _Gymnosperm_, that, like the pines -and larches of our existing forests, bore naked seeds, which, in their -state of germination, developed either double lobes to shelter the embryo -within, or shot out a fringe of verticillate spikes, which performed -the same protective functions, and that, as it increased in bulk year -after year, received its accessions of growth in outside layers. In -the transverse section the cells bear the reticulated appearance which -distinguish the coniferæ, (fig. 58, _a_;) the lignite had been exposed -in its bed to a considerable degree of pressure; and so the openings -somewhat resemble the meshes of a net that has been drawn a little awry; -but no general obliteration of their original character has taken place, -save in minute patches, where they have been injured by compression or -the bituminizing process. All the tubes indicated by the openings are, as -in recent coniferæ, of nearly the same size; and though, as in many of -the more ancient lignites, there are no indications of annual rings, the -direction of the medullary rays is distinctly traceable. The longitudinal -sections are rather less distinct than the transverse one; in the section -parallel to the radius of the stem or bole the circular disks of the -coniferæ were at first not at all detected; and, as since shown by a -very fine microscope, they appear simply as double and triple lines of -undefined dots, (_b_,) that somewhat resemble the stippled markings -of the miniature painter; nor are the openings of the medullary rays -frequent in the tangental section (_i. e._ that parallel to the bark,) -(_c_;) but nothing can be better defined than the peculiar arrangement -of the woody fibre, and the longitudinal form of the cells. Such is the -character of this, the most ancient of lignites yet found, that yields -to the microscope the peculiarities of its original structure. We find -in it an unfallen _Adam_,—not a half-developed savage.[33] - -[Illustration: Fig. 58. - -INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF LIGNITE OF LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE. - -a. _Transverse section._ - -b. _Longitudinal section, (parallel to radius, or medullary rays.)_ - -c. _Longitudinal section, (tangental, or parallel to the bark.)_ - -(Mag. forty diameters.)] - -The olive leaf which the dove brought to Noah established at least three -important facts, and indicated a few more. It showed most conclusively -that there was dry land, that there were olive trees, and that the -climate of the surrounding region, whatever change it might have -undergone, was still favorable to the development of vegetable life. -And, further, it might be very safely inferred from it, that if olive -trees had survived, other trees and plants must have survived also; and -that the dark muddy prominences round which the ebbing currents were fast -sweeping to lower levels, would soon present, as in antediluvian times, -their coverings of cheerful green. The olive leaf spoke not of merely -a partial, but of a general vegetation. Now, the coniferous lignite of -the Lower Old Red Sandstone we find charged, like the olive leaf, with -a various and singularly interesting evidence. It is something to know, -that in the times of the _Coccosteus_ and _Asterolepis_ there existed dry -land, and that that land wore, as at after periods, its soft, gay mantle -of green. It is something also to know, that the verdant tint was not -owing to a profuse development of the mere immaturities of the vegetable -kingdom,—crisp, slow-growing lichens, or watery spore-propagated fungi -that shoot up to their full size in a night,—nor even to an abundance -of the more highly organized families of the liverworts and the mosses. -These may have abounded then, as now; though we have not a shadow of -evidence that they did. But while we have no proof whatever of _their_ -existence, we have conclusive proof that there existed orders and -families of a rank far above them. On the dry land of the Lower Old -Red Sandstone, on which, according to the theory of Adolphe Brogniart, -nothing higher than a lichen or a moss could have been expected, the -ship-carpenter might have hopefully taken axe in hand, to explore the -woods for some such stately pine as the one described by Milton,— - - “Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast - Of some great admiral.” - -Viewed simply in its picturesque aspect, this _olive leaf_ of the Old -Red seems not at all devoid of poetry. We sail upwards into the high -geologic zones, passing from ancient to still more ancient scenes of -being; and, as we voyage along, find ever in the surrounding prospect, -as in the existing scene from which we set out, a graceful intermixture -of land and water, continent, river, and sea. We first coast along the -land of the Tertiary, inhabited by the strange quadrupeds of Cuvier, -and waving with the reeds and palms of the Paris Basin; the land of the -Wealden, with its gigantic iguanodon rustling amid its tree ferns and -its cycadeæ, comes next; then comes the green land of the Oolite, with -its little pouched insectivorous quadruped, its flying reptiles, its -vast jungles of the Brora equisetum, and its forests of the Helmsdale -pine; and then, dimly as through a haze, we mark, as we speed on, the -thinly scattered islands of the New Red Sandstone, and pick up in our -course a large floating leaf, veined like that of a cabbage, which not a -little puzzles the botanists of the expedition. And now we near the vast -Carboniferous continent, and see along the undulating outline, between us -and the sky, the strange forms of a vegetation, compared with which that -of every previously seen land seems stunted and poor. We speed day after -day along endless forests, in which gigantic club-mosses wave in air a -hundred feet over head, and skirt interminable marshes, in which thickets -of reeds overtop the mast-head. And, where mighty rivers come rolling to -the sea, we mark, through the long-retiring vistas which they open into -the interior, the higher grounds of the country covered with coniferous -trees, and see doddered trunks of vast size, like those of Granton -and Craigleith, reclining under the banks in deep muddy reaches, with -their decaying tops turned adown the current. At length the furthermost -promontory of this long range of coast comes full in view: we near it,—we -have come up abreast of it: we see the shells of the Mountain Limestone -glittering white along its further shore, and the green depths under our -keel lightened by the flush of innumerable corals; and then, bidding -farewell to the land forever,—for so the geologists of but five years -ago would have advised,—we launch into the unmeasured ocean of the Old -Red, with its three consecutive zones of animal life. Not a single patch -of land more do those geologic charts exhibit which we still regard as -new. The zones of the Silurian and Cambrian succeed the zones of the Old -Red; and, darkly fringed by an obscure bank of cloud ranged along the -last zone in the series, a night that never dissipates settles down upon -the deep. Our voyage, like that of the old fabulous navigators of five -centuries ago, terminates on the sea in a thick darkness, beyond which -there lies no shore and there dawns no light. And it is in the middle of -this vast ocean, just where the last zone of the Old Red leans against -the first zone of the Silurian, that we have succeeded in discovering -a solitary island unseen before,—a shrub-bearing land, much enveloped -in fog, but with hills that at least look green in the distance. There -are patches of floating sea-weed much comminuted by the surf all around -it; and on one projecting headland we see clear through our glasses a -cone-bearing tree. - -This certainly is not the sort of arrangement demanded by the exigencies -of the development hypothesis. A true wood at the base of the Old Red -Sandstone, or a true Placoid in the Limestones of Bala, very considerably -beneath the base of the Lower Silurian system, are untoward misplacements -for the purposes of the Lamarckian; and who that has watched the progress -of discovery for the last twenty years, and seen the place of the -earliest ichthyolite transferred from the Carboniferous to the Cambrian -system, and that of the earliest exogenous lignite from the Lias to the -Lower Devonian, will now venture to say that fossil wood may not yet -be detected as low in the scale as any vegetable organism whatever, or -fossil fish as low as the remains of any animal? But though the response -of the earlier geologic systems be thus unfavorable to the development -hypothesis, may not men such as the author of the “Vestiges” urge, that -the geologic evidence, taken as a whole, and in its bearing on groupes -and periods, establishes the general fact that the lower plants and -animals preceded the higher,—that the conifera, for instance, preceded -our true forest trees, such as the oak and elm,—that, in like manner, the -fish preceded the reptile, that the reptile preceded the bird, that the -bird preceded the mammiferous quadruped and the quadrumana, and that the -mammiferous quadruped and the quadrumana preceded man? Assuredly yes! -They may and do urge that Geology furnishes evidence of such a succession -of existences; and the arrangement seems at once a very wonderful and -very beautiful one. Of that great and imposing procession of being of -which this world has been the scene, the programme has been admirably -marshalled. But the order of the arrangement in no degree justifies the -inference based upon it by the Lamarckian. The fact that fishes and -reptiles were created on an earlier day than the beasts of the field -and the human family, gives no ground whatever for the belief that “the -peopling of the earth was one of a natural kind, requiring time,” or that -the reptiles and fishes have been not only the predecessors, but also the -progenitors of the beasts and of man. The geological phenomena, even had -the author of the “Vestiges” been consulted in their arrangement, and -permitted to determine their sequence, would yet have failed to furnish, -not merely an adequate foundation for the development hypothesis, -but even the slightest presumption in its favor. In making good the -assertion, may I ask the reader to follow me through the details of a -simple though somewhat lengthened illustration? - - - - -SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION. THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. - - -Several thousand years ago, ere the upheaval of the last of our raised -beaches, there existed somewhere on the British coast a submarine bed, -rich in sea-weed and the less destructible zoophytes, and inhabited by -the commoner crustaceæ and molluscs. Shoals of herrings frequented it -every autumn, haunted by their usual enemies the dog-fish, the cod, and -the porpoise; and, during the other seasons of the year, it was swum -over by the ling, the hake, and the turbot. A considerable stream, that -traversed a wide extent of marshy country, waving with flags and reeds, -and in which the frog and the newt bred by millions, entered the sea -a few hundred yards away, and bore down, when in flood, its modicum -of reptilian remains, some of which, sinking over the submarine bed, -found a lodgment at the bottom. Portions of reeds and flags were also -occasionally entombed, with now and then boughs of the pine and juniper, -swept from the higher grounds. Through frequent depositions of earthy -matter brought down by the streamlet, and of sand thrown up by the sea, -a gradual elevation of the bottom went on, till at length the deep-sea -bed came to exist as a shallow bank, over which birds of the wader family -stalked mid-leg deep when plying for food; and on one occasion a small -porpoise, losing his way, and getting entangled amid its shoals, perished -on it, and left his carcass to be covered up by its mud and silt. That -elevation of the land, or recession of the sea, to which the country owes -its last acquired marginal strip of soil, took place, and the shallow -bank became a flat meadow, raised some six or eight feet above the -sea-level. Herbs, shrubs, and trees, in course of time covered it over; -and then, as century succeeded century, it gathered atop a thick stratum -of peaty mould, embedding portions of birch and hazel bushes, and a few -doddered oaks. When in this state, at a comparatively recent period, -an Italian boy, accompanied by his monkey, was passing over it, when -the poor monkey, hard-wrought and ill-fed, and withal but indifferently -suited originally for braving the rigors of a keen northern climate, -lay down and died, and his sorrowing master covered up the remains. Not -many years after, the mutilated corpse of a poor shipwrecked sailor was -thrown up, during a night-storm, on the neighboring beach: it was a mere -fragment of the human frame,—a mouldering unsightly mass, decomposing -in the sun; and a humane herd-boy, scooping out a shallow grave for it, -immediately over that of the monkey, buried it up. Last of all, a farmer, -bent on agricultural improvement, furrowed the flat meadow to the depth -of some six or eight feet, by a broad ditch, that laid open its organic -contents from top to bottom. And then a philosopher of the school of -Maillet and Lamarck, chancing to come that way, stepped aside to examine -the phenomena, and square them with his theory. - -First, along the bottom of the deep ditch he detects marine organisms of -a low order, and generally of a small size There are dark indistinct -markings traversing the gray silt which he correctly enough regards -as the remains of fucoids and blent with these, he finds the stony -cells of flustra, the calcareous spindles of the sea-pen, the spines -of echinus, and the thin granular plates of the crustacea. Layers of -mussel and pecten shells come next, mixed up with the shells of buccinum, -natica, and trochus. Over the shells there occur defensive spines of -the dog-fish, blent with the button-like, thornset boucles of the ray. -And the minute skeletons of herrings, with the vertebral and cerebral -bones of cod, rest over these in turn. He finds, also, well-preserved -bits of reed, and a fragment of pine. Higher up, the well-marked bones -of the frog occur, and the minute skeleton of a newt; higher still, the -bones of birds of the diver family; higher still, the skeleton of a -porpoise; and still higher, he discovers that of a monkey, resting amid -the decayed boles and branches of dicotyledonous plants and trees. He -pursues his search, vastly delighted to find his doctrine of progressive -development so beautifully illustrated; and last of all he detects, only -a few inches from the surface, the broken remains of the poor sailor. And -having thus collected his facts, he sets himself to collate them with -his hypothesis. To hold that the zoophytes had been created zoophytes, -the molluscs molluscs, the fishes fishes, the reptiles reptiles, or the -man a man, would be, according to our philosopher, alike derogatory to -the Divine wisdom and to the acumen and vigor of the human intellect: it -would be “_distressing to him to be compelled to picture the power of -God, as put forth in any other manner than in those slow, mysterious, -universal laws, which have so plainly an eternity to work in_;” nor, -with so large an amount of evidence before him as that which the ditch -furnishes,—evidence conclusive to the effect that creation is but -development,—does he find it necessary either to cramp his faculties or -outrage his taste, by a weak yielding to the requirements of any such -belief. - -Meanwhile the farmer,—a plain, observant, elderly man, comes up, and -he and the philosopher enter into conversation. “I have been reading -the history of creation in the side of your deep ditch,” says the -philosopher, “and find the record really very complete. Look there,” he -adds, pointing to the unfossiliferous strip that runs along the bottom -of the bank; “there, life, both vegetable and animal, first began. It -began, struck by electricity out of albumen, as a congeries of minute -globe-shaped atoms,—each a hollow sphere within a sphere, as in the -well-known Chinese puzzle; and from these living atoms were all the -higher forms progressively developed. The ditch, of course, exhibits -none of the atoms with which being first commenced; for the atoms don’t -keep;—we merely see their place indicated by that unfossiliferous band -at the bottom; but we may detect immediately over it almost the first -organisms into which—parting thus early into the two great branches of -organic being—they were developed. _There_ are the fucoids, first-born -among vegetables,—and _there_ the zoophytes, well nigh the lowest of the -animal forms. The fucoids are marine plants; for, according to Oken, -‘all life is from the sea,—none from the continent;’ but _there_, a few -feet higher, we may see the remains of reeds and flags,—semi-aqueous, -semi-aerial plants of the comparatively low monocotyledonous order into -which the fucoids were developed; higher still we detect fragments -of pines, and, I think, juniper,—trees and shrubs of the land of an -intermediate order, into which the reeds and flags were developed -in turn; and in that peaty layer immediately beneath the vegetable -mould, there occur boughs and trunks of blackened oak,—a noble tree -of the dicotyledonous division,—the highest to which vegetation in its -upward course has yet attained. Nor is the progress of the other great -branch of organized being—that of the animal kingdom—less distinctly -traceable. The zoophytes became crustacea and molluscs,—the crustacea -and molluscs, dog-fishes and herrings,—the dog-fish, a low placoid, -shot up chiefly into turbot, cod, and ling; but the smaller osseous -fish was gradually converted into a batrachian reptile; in short, -the herring became a frog,—an animal that still testifies to its -ichthyological origin, by commencing life as a fish. Gradually, in -the course of years, the reptile, expanding in size and improving in -faculty, passed into a warm-blooded porpoise; the porpoise at length, -tiring of the water as he began to know better, quitted it altogether, -and became a monkey, and the monkey by slow degrees improved into -man,—yes, into man, my friend, who has still a tendency, especially -when just shooting up to his full stature, and studying the ‘Vestiges,’ -to resume the monkey. Such, Sir, is the true history of creation, as -clearly recorded in the section of earth, moss, and silt, which you have -so opportunely laid bare. Where that ditch now opens, the generations -of the man atop lived, died, and were developed. _There_ flourished -and decayed his great-great-great-great-grandfather the sea-pen,—his -great-great-great-grandfather the mussel,—his great-great-grandfather -the herring,—his great-grandfather the frog,—his grandfather the -porpoise,—and his father the monkey. And _there_ also lived, died, and -were developed, the generations of the oak, from the kelp-weed and tangle -to the reed and the flag, and from the reed and the flag, to the pine, -the juniper, the hazel, and the birch.” - -“Master,” replies the farmer, “I see you are a scholar and, I suspect, -a wag. It would take a great deal of believing to believe all that. -In the days of my poor old neighbor the infidel weaver, who died of -_delirium tremens_ thirty years ago, I used to read Tom Paine; and, as I -was a little wild at the time, I was, I am afraid, a bit of a sceptic. -It wasn’t easy work always to be as unbelieving as Tom, especially when -the conscience within got queasy; but it would be a vast deal easier, -Master, to _doubt_ with Tom than to _believe_ with you. I am a plain -man, but not quite a fool; and as I have now been looking about me in -this neighborhood for the last forty years, I have come to know that it -gives no assurance that any one thing grew out of any other thing because -it chances to be found atop of it, Master. See, yonder is Dobbin lying -lazily atop of his bundle of hay; and yonder little Jack, with bridle in -hand, and he in a few minutes will be atop of Dobbin. And all I see in -that ditch, Master, from top to bottom, is neither more nor less than a -certain top-upon-bottom order of things. I see sets of bones and dead -plants lying on the top of other sets of bones and dead plants,—things -lying atop of things, as I say, like Dobbin on the hay and Jack upon -Dobbin. I doubt not the sea was once here, Master, just as it was once -where you see the low-lying field yonder, which I won from it ten years -ago. I have carted tangle and kelp-weed where I now cut clover and -rye-grass, and have gathered periwinkles where I now see snails. But it -is _clean against experience_, as my poor old neighbor the weaver used -to say,—against _my_ experience, Master,—that it was the kelp-weed that -became the rye-grass, or that the periwinkles freshened into snails. -The kelp-weed and periwinkles belong to those plants and animals of the -sea that we find growing in _only_ the sea; the rye-grass and snails, -to those plants and animals of the land that we find growing on _only_ -the land. It is contrary to all experience, and all testimony too, that -the one passed into the other, and so I cannot believe it; but I do -and must believe, instead,—for it is not contrary to experience, and -much according to testimony,—that the Author of all created both land -productions and sea productions at the ‘times before appointed,’ and -‘determined the bounds of their habitation.’ ‘By faith we understand -that the worlds were framed by the word of God;’ and I find I can be -a believer on God’s terms at a much less expense of credulity than an -infidel on yours.” - -But in this form at least it can be scarce necessary that the argument -should be prolonged. - -The geological phenomena, I repeat, even had the author of the “Vestiges” -been consulted in their arrangement, and permitted to determine their -sequence, would fail to furnish a single presumption in favor of the -development hypothesis. Does the ditch-side of my illustration furnish it -with a single favoring presumption? The arrangement and sequence of the -various organisms are complete in both the zoological and phytological -branch. The flag and reed succeed the fucoid; the fir and juniper succeed -the flag and reed; and the hazel, birch, and oak succeed the fir and -juniper. In like manner, and with equal regularity, zoophytes, the -radiata, the articulata, mollusca, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, -are ranged, the superior in succession over the inferior classes, in -the true ascending order; and yet we at once see that the evidence of -the ditch-side, amounting in the aggregate to no more than this, that -the remains of the higher lie over those of the lower organisms, gives -not a shadow of support to the hypothesis that the lower produced the -higher. For, according to the honest farmer, the fact that any one thing -is found lying on the top of any other thing, furnishes no presumption -whatever that the thing below stands in the relation of parent to -the thing above. And the evidence which the well-ranged organisms of -the ditch-side do not furnish, the organisms of the entire geologic -scale, even were they equally well ranged, would fail to supply. The -fossiliferous portion of the ditch-side of my illustration may be, let us -suppose, some five or six _feet_ in thickness; the fossiliferous portion -of the earth’s crust must be some five or six _miles_ in thickness. -But the mere circumstance of space introduces no new element into -the question. Equally in both cases the fact of superposition is not -_identical_ with the fact of parental relation, nor even in any degree an -_analogous_ fact. - -As, however, the succession of remains in the fossiliferous series of -rocks is infinitely less favorable to the development hypothesis than -that of the organisms of the ditch-side, it is not very surprising -that the disciples of the development school should be now evincing a -disposition to escape from the ascertained facts of Geology, and the -legitimate conclusions based upon these, unto unknown and unexplored -provinces of the science; or that they should be found virtually urging, -that though some of the ascertained facts may seem to bear against them, -the facts not yet ascertained may be found telling in their favor. -Such, in effect, is the course taken by the author of the “Vestiges,” -in his “Explanations,” when, availing himself of a difference of -opinion which exists among some of our most accomplished geologists -regarding the first epochs of organized existence, he takes part with -the section who hold that we have not yet penetrated to the deposits -representative of the dawn of being, and that fossil-charged formations -may yet be detected beneath the oldest rocks of what is now regarded -as the lowest fossiliferous system. Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Leonard -Hornet represent the abler and better-known assertors of this last view; -while Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Sedgwick rank among the more -distinguished assertors of the antagonist one. It would be of course -utterly presumptuous in the writer of these pages to attempt deciding -a question regarding which such men differ; but in forming a judgment -for myself, various considerations incline me to hold, that the point -is now very nearly determined at which, to employ the language of Sir -Roderick, “life was first breathed into the waters.” The pyramid of -organized existence, as it ascends in the by-past eternity, inclines -sensibly towards its apex,—that apex of “_beginning_” in which, on -far other than geological grounds, it is our privilege to believe. -The broad base of the superstructure, planted on the existing _now_, -stretches across the entire scale of life, animal and vegetable; but it -contracts as it rises into the past;—man—the quadrumana—the quadrupedal -mammal—the bird—and the reptile—are each in succession struck from off -its breadth, till we at length see it with the vertebrata, represented -by only the fish, narrowing, as it were, to a point; and though the -clouds of the upper region may hide its extreme apex, we infer from the -declination of its sides, that it cannot penetrate much farther into the -profound. When Steele and Addison were engaged in breaking up, piecemeal, -their Spectator Club,—killing off good Sir Roger de Coverly with a -defluction, marrying Will Honeycomb to his tenant’s daughter, and sending -away Captain Sentry and Sir Andrew Freeport to their estates to the -country,—it was shrewdly inferred that the “Spectator” himself was very -soon to quit the field; and the sudden discontinuance of his lucubrations -justified the inference. And a corresponding style of reasoning, based -on the corresponding fact of the breaking up and piecemeal disappearance -of the group of organized being, seems equally admissible. It is -somewhat difficult to conceive how at least _many_ more volumes of the -geologic record than the known ones could be got up without the _club_. -Further,—so far as yet appears, the fish must have lived in advance of -the reptile during the three protracted periods of the Old Red Sandstone, -the two still more protracted periods of the Upper and Lower Silurians, -and the perhaps more protracted period still of the Cambrian deposits;—in -all, apparently, a greatly more extended space than that in which the -reptile lived in advance of the quadrupedal mammal, or the quadrupedal -mammal lived in advance of man. On principles somewhat similar to those -on which, with reference to the average term of life, the genealogist -fixes the probable period of some birth in his chain of succession of -which he cannot determine the exact date, it seems natural to infer that -the _birth_ of the fish should have taken place at least not earlier than -the times of the Cambrian system. - -There is another consideration, of at least equal, if not greater -weight. A general correspondence is found to obtain in widely-separated -localities, in the organic contents of that lowest band of the Lower -Silurian or Cambrian system in which fossils have been detected. In -Russia, in Sweden, in Norway, in the Lake district of England, and in -the United States, there are certain rocks which occupy relatively -the same place, and enclose what may be described generally as the -same remains. They occur in Scandinavia as that “fucoidal band” of Sir -Roderick Murchison which forms the base of the vast Palæozoic basin of -the Baltic; they exist in Cumberland and Westmoreland as the Skiddaw -slates of Professor Sedgwick, and bear also their fucoidal impressions, -blent with graptolites; they are present in North America as those -Potsdam sandstones of the States’ geologists in which fucoids so abound, -mixed with a minute lingula, that they impart to some portions of the -strata a carboniferous character. But with these deep-lying beds in -all the several localities, thousands of miles apart, in which their -passage into the inferior deposits has been traced, fossils cease. And -why cease with them? In one locality the ancient ocean may have been of -such a depth in the period immediately _previous_, and represented, in -consequence, by the strata immediately _beneath_, that no animal could -have _lived_ at its bottom,—though I do not well see why the remains -of those animals who, like the shark and pilot-fish, are frequently -seen swimming over the profoundest depths, might not, did such exist -at the time, be notwithstanding _found_ at its bottom; or in another -locality every trace of organization in the nether rocks may have been -obliterated, at some posterior period, by fire. But it is difficult to -imagine that that uniform cessation of organized life at one point, which -seems to have conducted Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Sedgwick -to their conclusion, should have been thus a mere effect of accident. -Accident has its laws, but uniformity is not one of them; and should the -experience be invariable, as it already seems extensive, that immediately -beneath the fucoidal beds organic remains cease, I do not see how the -conclusion is to be avoided, that they represent the period in which at -least _existences capable of preservation_ were first introduced. Every -case of coincident cessation which has occurred since the determination -of the second case, must be reckoned, not simply as an additional -unit in evidence, but, on the principles which determine mathematical -probability, as a unit multiplied first by the chances against its -occurrence, regarded as a mere contingency in that exact formation, and -second, by the sum of all the previous occurrences at the same point. - -In this curious question, however, which it must be the part of future -explorers in the geological field definitely to settle, the Lamarckian -can have no legitimate stake. It is but natural that, in his anxiety to -secure an ultimate retreat for his hypothesis, he should desire to see -that darkness in which ghosts love to walk settling down on the extreme -verge of the geological horizon, and enveloping in its folds the first -beginnings of life. But even did the cloud exist, it is, if I may so -express myself, on its nearer side, where there is light,—not within nor -beyond it, where there is none,—that the battle must be fought. It is to -Geology _as it is known to be_, that the Lamarckian has appealed,—not -to Geology as it is _not_ known to be. He has summoned into court -_existing_ witnesses; and, finding their testimony unfavorable, he seeks -to neutralize their evidence by calling from the “vasty deep,” of the -unexamined and the obscure, witnesses that “won’t come,”—that by the -legitimate authorities are not known even to exist,—and with which he -himself is, on his own confession, wholly unacquainted, save in the old -scholastic character of mere possibilities. The _possible_ fossil can -have no more standing in this controversy than the “_possible angel_.” -He tells us that we have not yet got down to that base-line of all the -fossiliferous systems at which life first began; and very possibly we -have not. But what of that? He has carried his appeal to Geology _as it -is_;—he has referred his case to the testimony of the _known_ witnesses, -for in no case can the _unknown_ ones be summoned or produced. It is on -the evidence of the known, and the known only, that the exact value of -his claims must be determined; and his appeal to the unknown serves but -to show how thoroughly he himself feels that the actually ascertained -evidence bears against him. The severe censure of Johnson on reasoners of -this class is in no degree over-severe. “He who will determine,” said the -moralist, “against that which he knows, because there may be something -which he knows not,—he that can set hypothetical possibility against -acknowledged certainty,—is not to be admitted among reasonable beings.” - -But the honest farmer’s reminiscences of his deceased neighbor the -weaver, and his use at second-hand of Hume’s experience-argument, -naturally lead me to another branch of the subject. - - - - -LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS. ITS CONSEQUENCES. - - -I have said that the curiously-mixed, semi-marine, semi-lacustrine flora -of the Lake of Stennis became associated in my mind, like the ancient -_Asterolepis_ of Stromness, with the development hypothesis. The fossil, -as has been shown, represents not inadequately the geologic evidence in -the question,—the mixed vegetation of the lake may be regarded as forming -a portion of the phytological evidence. - -“All life,” says Oken, “is from the sea. Where the sea organism, by -self-elevation, succeeds in attaining into form, there issues forth -from it a higher organism. Love arose out of the sea-foam. The primary -mucus (that in which electricity originates life) was, and is still, -generated in those very parts of the sea where the water is in contact -with earth and air, and thus upon the shores. The first creation of the -organic took place where the first mountain summits projected out of the -water,—indeed, without doubt, in India, if the Himalaya be the highest -mountain. _The first organic forms, whether plants or animals, emerged -from the shallow parts of the sea._” Maillet wrote to exactly the same -effect a full century ago. “In a word,” we find him saying, in his -“Telliamed,” “do not herbs, plants, roots, grains, and all of this kind -that the earth produces and nourishes, come from the sea? Is it not at -least natural to think so, since we are certain that all our habitable -lands came originally from the sea? Besides, in small islands far from -the continent, which have appeared but a few ages ago at most, and where -it is manifest that never any man had been, we find shrubs, herbs, roots, -and sometimes animals. Now, you must be forced to own either that these -productions owed their origin to the sea, or to a new creation, which is -absurd.” - -It is a curious fact, to which, in the passing, I must be permitted to -call the attention of the reader, that all the leading assertors of the -development hypothesis have been bad geologists. Maillet had for his -errors and deficiencies the excellent apology that he wrote more than -a hundred years ago, when the theory of a universal ocean, promulgated -by Leibnitz nearly a century earlier, was quite as good as any of the -other theories of the time, and when Geology, as a science, had no -existence. And so we do not wonder at an ignorance which was simply that -of his age, when we find him telling his readers that plants _must_ -have originated in the sea, seeing that “all our habitable lands came -originally from the sea;” meaning, of course, by the statement, not at -all what the modern geologist would mean were he to employ even the same -words, but simply that there was a time when the universal ocean covered -the whole globe, and that, as the waters gradually diminished, the -loftier mountain summits and higher table-lands, in appearing in their -new character as islands and continents, derived their flora from what, -in a universal ocean could be the only possible existing flora,—that -of the sea. But what shall we say of the equally profound ignorance -manifested by Professor Oken, a living authority, whom we find prefacing -for the Ray Society, in 1847, the English translation of his “Elements -of Physio-philosophy?” “The first creation of the organic took place,” -we find him saying, “where the first mountain summits projected out -of the sea,—_indeed, without doubt, in India, if the Himalaya be the -highest mountain_.” Here, evidently, in this late age of the world, in -which Geology _does_ exist as a science, do we find the ghost of the -universal ocean of Leibnitz walking once more, as if it had never been -laid. Is there now in all Britain even a tyro geologist so unacquainted -with geological fact as not to know that the richest flora which the -globe ever saw had existed for myriads of ages, and then, becoming -extinct, had slept in the fossil state for myriads of ages more, ere -the highest summits of the Himalayan range rose over the surface of the -deep? The Himalayas disturbed, and bore up along with them in their -upheaval, vast beds of the Oolitic system. Belemnites and ammonites have -been dug out of their sides along the line of perpetual snow, seventeen -thousand feet over the level of the sea. What in the recent period form -the loftiest mountains of the globe, existed as portions of a deep-sea -bottom, swum over by the fishes and reptiles of the great Secondary -period, when what is now Scotland had its dark forests of stately -pine,—represented in the present age of the world by the lignites of -Helmsdale, Eathie, and Eigg,—and when the plants of a former creation -lay dead and buried deep beneath, in shales and fire-clay,—existing as -vast beds of coal, or entombed in solid rock, as the brown massy trunks -of Granton and Craigleith. And even ere these last existed as living -trees, the coniferous lignite of the Lower Old Red Sandstone found at -Cromarty had passed into the fossil state, and lay as a semi-calcareous, -semi-bituminous mass, amid perished _Dipterians_ and extinct _Coccostei_. -So much for the Geology of the German Professor. And be it remarked, -that the _actualities_ in this question can be determined by only the -geologist. The mere naturalist may indicate from the analogies of his -science, what possibly _might_ have taken place, but what really _did_ -take place, and the true order in which the events occurred, it is the -part of the geologist to determine. It cannot be out of place to remark, -further, that geological discovery is in no degree responsible for the -infidelity of the development hypothesis; seeing that, in the first -place, the hypothesis _is greatly more ancient than the discoveries_, -and, in the second, that its more prominent assertors are _exactly the -men who know least of geological fact_. But to this special point I shall -again refer. - -The author of the “Vestiges” is at one, regarding the supposed marine -origin of terrestrial plants, with Maillet and Oken; and he regards the -theory, we find him stating in his “Explanations,” as the true key to -the well-established fact, that the vegetation of groupes of islands -generally corresponds with that of the larger masses of land in their -neighborhood. Marine plants of the same kinds crept out of the sea, it -would seem, upon the islands on the one hand, and upon the larger masses -of land on the other, and thus produced the same flora in each; just as -tadpoles, after passing their transition state, creep out of their canal -or river on the opposite banks, and thus give to the fields or meadows on -the right-hand side a supply of frogs, of the same appearance and size -as those poured out upon the fields and meadows of the left. “Thus, for -example,” we find him saying, “the Galapagos exhibit general characters -in common with South America; and the Cape de Verd islands, with Africa. -They are, in Mr. Darwin’s happy phrase, satellites to those continents, -in respect of natural history. Again,” he continues, “when masses of -land are only divided from each other by narrow seas, there is usually a -community of forms. The European and African shores of the Mediterranean -present an example. Our own islands afford another of far higher value. -It appears that the flora of Ireland and Great Britain is various, or -rather that we have five floras or distinct sets of plants, and that -each of these is partaken of by a portion of the opposite continent. -There are, first, a flora confined to the west of Ireland, and imparted -likewise to the north-west of Spain; second, a flora in the south-west -promontory of England and of Ireland, extending across the Channel to -the north-west coast of France; third, one common to the south-east -of England and north of France; fourth, an Alpine flora developed in -the Scottish and Welsh Highlands, and intimately related to that of -the Norwegian Alps; fifth, a flora which prevails over a large part of -England and Ireland, ‘mingled with other floras, and diminishing slightly -as we proceed westward:’ this bears intimate relation with the flora -of Germany. Facts so remarkable would force the meanest fact-collector -or species-demonstrator into generalization. The really ingenious man -who lately brought them under notice (Professor Edward Forbes) could -only surmise, as their explanation, that the spaces now occupied by the -intermediate seas must have been dry land at the time when these floras -were created. In that case, either the original arrangement of the -floras, or the selection of land for submergence, must have been apposite -to the case in a degree far from usual. The necessity for a simpler cause -is obvious, and it is found in the hypothesis of a _spread of terrestrial -vegetation from the sea into the lands adjacent_. The community of forms -in the various regions opposed to each other merely indicates a distinct -marine creation in each of the oceanic areas respectively interposed, and -which would naturally advance into the lands nearest to it, as far as -circumstances of soil and climate were found agreeable.” - -Such, regarding the origin of terrestrial vegetation, are the views -of Maillet, Oken, and the author of the “Vestiges.” They all agree in -holding that the plants of the land existed in their first condition as -weeds of the sea. - -Let me request the reader at this stage, ere we pass on to the -consideration of the experience-argument, to remark a few incidental, -but by no means unimportant, consequences of the belief. And, first, let -him weigh for a moment the comparative demands on his credulity of the -theory by which Professor Forbes accounts for the various floras of the -British Islands, and that hypothesis of transmutation which the author of -the “Vestiges” would so fain put in its place, as greatly more simple, -and, of course, more in accordance with the principles of human belief. -In order to the reception of the Professor’s theory, it is necessary to -hold, in the first place, that the creation of each species of plant -took place, not by repetition of production in various widely-separated -centres, but in some single centre, from which the species propagated -itself by seed, bud, or scion, across the special area which it is now -found to occupy. And this, in the first instance, is of course as much an -assumption as any of those assumed numbers or assumed lines with which, -in algebra and the mathematics, it is necessary in so many calculations -to set out, in quest of some required number or line, which, without the -assistance of the assumed ones, we might despair of ever finding. But -the assumption is in itself neither unnatural nor violent; there are -various very remarkable analogies which lend it support; the facts which -seem least to harmonize with it are not wholly irreconcilable, and are, -besides, of a merely exceptional character; and, further, it has been -adopted by botanists of the highest standing.[34] It is necessary to -hold, in the second place, in order to the reception of the theory, that -the area of the earth’s surface occupied by the British Islands and the -neighboring coasts of the Continent once stood fifty fathoms higher, in -relation to the existing sea-level, than it does now,—a belief which, -whatever its specific grounds or standing in this particular case, is -at least in strict accordance with the general geological phenomena of -subsidence and elevation, and which, so far from outraging any experience -founded on observation or testimony, runs in the same track with what -is known of wide areas now in the course of sinking, like that on the -Italian coast, in which the Bay of Baiæ and the ruins of the temple of -Serapis occur, or that in Asia, which includes the Run of Cutch; or of -what is known of areas in the course of rising, like part of the coast -of Sweden, or part of the coast of South America, or in Asia along the -western shores of Aracan. Whereas, in order to close with the _simpler_ -antagonistic belief of the author of the “Vestiges,” it is necessary -to hold, _contrary_ to all experience, that _dulce_ and _henware_[35] -became, through a very wonderful metamorphosis, cabbage and spinnage; -that kelp-weed and tangle bourgeoned into oaks and willows; and that -_slack_, _rope-weed_, and _green-raw_,[36] shot up into mangel-wurzel, -rye-grass, and clover. _Simple_, certainly! An infidel on terms such -as these could with no propriety be regarded as an _unbeliever_. It is -well that the New Testament makes no such extraordinary demands on human -credulity. - -Let us remark further, at this stage, that, judging from the generally -received geological evidence in the case, very little time seems to be -allowed by the author of the “Vestiges” for that miraculous process of -transmutation through which the low algæ of our sea-shores are held to -have passed into high orders of plants which constitute the prevailing -British flora. The boulder clay, which rises so high along our hills, -and which, as shown by its inferior position on the lower grounds, is -decidedly the most ancient of the country’s superficial deposits, is yet -so modern, geologically, that it contains only recent shells. It belongs -to that cold, glacial, post-Tertiary period, in which what is now Britain -existed as a few groupes of insulated hill-tops, bearing the semi-arctic -vegetation of our fourth flora,—that true _Celtic_ flora of the country -which we now find, like the country’s Celtic races of our own species, -cooped up among the mountains. The fifth or Germanic flora must have -been introduced, it is held, at a later period, when the climate had -greatly meliorated. And if we are to hold that the plants of this last -flora were _developed_ from sea-weed, not propagated across a continuity -of land from the original centre in Germany, or borne by currents from -the mouths of the Germanic rivers,—the theory of Mon. C. Martins,—then -must we also hold that that development took place since the times of -the boulder clay, and that fucoids and confervæ became dicotyledonous -and monocotyledonous plants during a brief period, in which the _Purpura -lapillus_ and _Turritella terebra_ did not alter a single whorl, and -the _Cyprina islandica_ and _Astarte borealis_ retained unchanged each -minute projection of their hinges, and each nicer peculiarity of their -muscular impressions. _Creation_ would be greatly less wonderful than a -sudden transmutative process such as this, restricted in its operation -to groupes of English, Irish, and Manx plants, identical with groupes -in Germany, when all the various organisms around them, such as our -sea-shells, continued to be exactly what they had been for ages before. -A process of development from the lowest to the highest forms, rigidly -restricted to the flora of a country, would be simply the miracle of -Jonah’s gourd several thousand times repeated. - -I must here indulge in a few remarks more, which, though they may seem of -an incidental character, have a direct bearing on the general subject. -The geologist infers, in all his reasonings founded on fossils, that a -race or species has existed from some one certain point in the scale -to some other certain point, if he find it occurring at both points -together. He infers on this principle, for instance, that the boulder -clay, which contains only _recent_ shells, belongs to the _recent_ or -post-Tertiary period; and that the Oolite and Lias, which contain _no_ -recent shells, represent a period whose existences have all become -extinct. And all experience serves to show that his principle is a sound -one. In creation there are many species linked together, from their -degree of similarity, by the _generic_ tie; but no perfect verisimilitude -obtains among them, unless hereditarily derived from the one, two, or -more individuals, of contemporary origin, with which the race began. -True, there are some races that have spread over very wide circles,—the -circle of the human family has become identical with that of the globe; -and there are certain plants and animals that, from peculiar powers of -adaptation to the varieties of soil and climate,—mayhap also from the -tenacious vitality of their seeds, and their facilities of transport by -natural means,—are likewise diffused very widely. There are plants, -too, such as the common nettle and some of the ordinary grasses, which -accompany civilized man all over the globe, he scarce knows how, and -spring up unbidden where-ever he fixes his habitation. He, besides, -carries with him the common agricultural weeds: there are localities -in the United States, says Sir Charles Lyell, where these _exotics_ -outnumber the native plants; but these are exceptions to the prevailing -economy of distribution; and the circles of species generally are -comparatively limited and well defined. The mountains of the southern -hemisphere have, like those of Switzerland and the Scotch Highlands, -their forests of coniferous trees; but they furnish no Swiss pines or -Scotch firs; nor do the coasts of New Zealand or Van Dieman’s Land -supply the European shells or fish. True, there may be much to puzzle -in the identity of what may be termed the exceptional plants, equally -indigenous, apparently, in circles widely separated by space. It has -been estimated that there exist about a hundred thousand vegetable -species, and of these, thirty Antarctic forms have been recognized by -Dr. Hooker as identical with European ones. Had Robinson Crusoe failed -to remember that he had shaken the old corn-bag where he found the wheat -and barley ears springing up on his island, he might have held that he -had discovered a new centre of the European cerealia. And the process -analogous to the shaking of the bag is frequently a process _not_ to be -remembered. There are several minute lochans in the Hebrides and the west -of Ireland in which there occurs a small plant of the cord-rush family, -(_Eriocaulon septangulare_,) which, though common in America, is nowhere -to be found on the European Continent. It is the only British plant -which belongs to no other part of Europe. How was it transported across -the Atlantic? Entangled, mayhap, in the form of a single seed,—for its -seeds are exceedingly light and small,—in the plumage of some water-fowl, -free of both sea and lake, it had been carried in the germ from the -weed-skirted edge of some American swamp or mere, to some mossy lochan of -Connaught or of Skye; and one such seed transported by one such accident, -unique in its occurrence in thousands of years, would be quite sufficient -to puzzle all the botanists forever after. I have seen the seed of one -of our Scotch grasses, that had been originally caught in the matted -fleece of a sheep reared among the hills of Sutherland, and then wrought -into a coarse, ill-dressed woollen cloth, carried about for months in a -piece of underclothing. It might have gone over half the globe in that -time, and, when cast away with the worn vestment, might have originated -a new circle for its species in South America or New Holland. There are -seeds specially contrived by the Great Designer to be carried far from -their original habitats in the coats of animals,—a mode which admits -of transport to much greater distances than the mode, also extensively -operative, of consigning them for conveyance to their stomachs; and when -we see the work in its effects, we are puzzled by the want of a record -of an emigratory process, of which, in the circumstances, no record -could possibly exist. Unable to make out a case for the “shaking of the -bag,” we bethink us, in the emergency, of repetition of creation. But -in circles separated by _time_, not space,—by _time_, across whose dim -gulfs no voyager sails, and no bird flies, and over which there are -no means of transport from the point where a race once fails, to any -other point in the future,—we find no repetition of species. If the -production of perfect duplicates or triplicates in independent centres -were a law of nature, our works of physical science could scarce fail -to tell us of identical species found occurring in widely-separated -systems,—Scotch firs and larches, for instance, among the lignites of -the Lias, or _Cyprina islandica_ and _Ostrea edulis_ among the shells -of the Mountain Limestone. But never yet has the geologist found in his -systems or formations any such evidence as facts such as these might be -legitimately held to furnish, of the independent _de novo_ production of -individual members of any single species. On the contrary, the evidence -lies so entirely the other way, that he reasons on the existence of a -family relation obtaining between all the members of each species, as -one of his best established principles. If members of the same species -may exist through _de novo_ production, without hereditary relationship, -so thoroughly, in consequence, does the fabric of geological reasoning -fall to the ground, that we find ourselves incapacitated from regarding -even the bed of common cockle or mussel shells, which we find lying a few -feet from the surface on our raised beaches, as of the existing creation -at all. Nay, even the human remains of our moors may have belonged, if -our principle of relationship in each species be not a true one, to -some former creation, cut off from that to which we ourselves belong, -by a wide period of death. All palæontological reasoning is at an end -forever, if identical species can originate in independent centres, -widely separated from each other by periods of time; and if they fail to -originate in periods separated by time, how or why in centres separated -by space? - -Let the reader remark further, the bearing of those facts from which this -principle of geological reasoning has been derived, on the development -hypothesis. We find species restricted to circles and periods; and though -stragglers are occasionally found outside the circle in the existing -state of things, never are they found beyond their period among the -remains of the past. It was profoundly argued by Cuvier, that _life_ -could not possibly have had a chemical origin. “In fact,” we find him -remarking, “life exercising upon the elements which at every instant -form part of the living body, and upon those which it attracts to it, an -action contrary to that which would be produced without it by the usual -chemical affinities, it is inconsistent to suppose that it can itself -be produced by these affinities.” And the phenomena of restriction to -circle and period testify to the same effect. Nothing, on the one hand, -can be more various in character and aspect than the organized existences -of the various circles and periods; nothing more invariable, on the -other, than the results of chemical or electrical experiment. And yet, -to use almost the words of Cuvier, “we know of no other power in nature -capable of reuniting previously separated molecules,” than the electric -and the chemical. To these agents, accordingly, all the assertors of the -development hypothesis have had recourse for at least the _origination_ -of life. Air, water, earth existing as a saline mucus, and an active -persistent electricity, are the creative ingredients of Oken. The -author of the “Vestiges” is rather less explicit on the subject: he -simply refers to the fact, that the “basis of all vegetable and animal -substances consists of nucleated cells,—that is, of cells having granules -within them;” and states that globules of a resembling character “can -be produced in albumen by electricity;” and that though albumen itself -has not yet been produced by artificial means,—the only step in the -process of creation which is wanting,—it is yet known to be a chemical -composition, the mode of whose production may “be any day discovered in -the laboratory.” Further, he adopts, as part of the foundation of his -hypothesis, the pseudo-experiment of Mr. Weekes, who holds that out of -certain saline preparations, acted upon by electricity, he can produce -certain living animalcula of the mite family;—the vital and the organized -out of the inorganic and the dead. In all such cases, electricity, or -rather, according to Oken, galvanism, is regarded as the vitalizing -principle. “_Organism_,” says the German, “is _galvanism_ residing in -a thoroughly homogeneous mass.... A galvanic pile pounded into atoms -must become alive. In this manner nature brings forth organic bodies.” -I have even heard it seriously asked whether electricity be not God! -Alas! could such a god, limited in its capacity of action, like those -“gods of the plains” in which the old Syrian trusted, have wrought, in -the character of Creator, with a variety of result so endless, that in -no geologic period has repetition taken place? In all that purports to -be experiment on the development side of the question, we see nothing -else save repetition. The _Acarus Crossi_ of Mr. Weekes is not a new -species, but the _repetition_ of an old one, which has been long known -as the _Acarus horridus_, a little bristle-covered creature of the mite -family, that harbors in damp corners among the debris of outhouses, and -the dust and dirt of neglected workshops and laboratories. Nay, even a -change in the chemical portion of the experiment by which he believed the -creature to be produced, failed to secure variety. A powerful electric -current had been sent, in the first instance, through a solution of -silicate of potash, and, after a time, the _Acarus horridus_ crawled out -of the fluid. The current was then sent through a solution of nitrate of -copper, and after a due space, the _Acarus horridus_ again creeped out. -A solution of ferro-cyanate of potash was next subjected to the current, -and yet again, and in greater numbers than on the two former occasions, -there appeared, as in virtue, it would seem, of its extraordinary -appetency, _to be_ the same ever-recurring _Acarus horridus_. How, or -in what form, the little creature should have been introduced into the -several experiments, it is not the part of those who question their -legitimacy to explain; it is enough for us to know, that individuals of -the family to which the _Acarus_ belongs are so remarkable for their -powers of life, even in their fully developed state, as to resist, for -a time, the application of boiling water, and to live long in alcohol. -We know, further, that the _germs_ of the lower animals are greatly -more tenacious of vitality than the animals themselves; and that they -may exist in their state of embryonism in the most unthought of and -elusive forms; nay,—as the recent discoveries regarding alterations of -generation have conclusively shown,—that the germ which produced the -parent may be wholly unlike the germ that produces its offspring, and -yet identical with that which produced the parent’s parent. Save on -the theory of a quiescent vitality, maintained by seeds for centuries -within a few inches of the earth’s surface, we know not how a layer of -shell, sand, or marl, spread over the bleak moors of Harris, should -produce crops of white clover, where only heath had grown before; nor -how brakes of doddered furze burnt down on the slopes of the Cromarty -Sutors should be so frequently succeeded by thickets of raspberry. We -are not, however to give up the _unknown_,—that illimitable province in -which science discovers,—to be a wild region of dream, in which fantasy -may invent. There are many dark places in the field of human knowledge -which even the researches of ages may fail wholly to enlighten; but no -one derives a right from that circumstance to people them with chimeras -and phantoms. They belong to the philosophers of the future,—not to the -visionaries of the present. But while it is not our part to explain -_how_, in the experiments of Mr. Weekes, the chain of life from life has -been maintained unbroken, we can most conclusively show, that that world -of organized existence of which we ourselves form part, is, and ever has -been, a world, not of tame repetition, but of endless variety. It is -palpably not a world of _Acaridæ_ of one species, nor yet of creatures -developed from these, under those electric or chemical laws of which -the grand characteristic is invariability of result. The vast variety -of its existences speak not of the operation of _unvarying laws_, that -represent, in their uniformity of result, the unchangeableness of the -Divinity, but of _creative acts_, that exemplify the infinity of His -resources. - -Let the reader yet further remark, if he has followed me through these -preliminary observations, what is really involved in the hypothesis of -the author of the “Vestiges,” regarding the various floras common to -the British islands and the Continent. If it was upon his scheme that -England, Ireland, and the mainland of Europe came to possess an identical -flora, production _de novo_ and by repetition of the same species must -have taken place in thousands of instances along the shores of each -island and of the mainland. His hypothesis demands that the sea-weed on -the coast of Ireland should have been developed, first through lower, and -then higher forms, into thousands of terrestrial plants,—that exactly -the same process of development from sea-weed into terrestrial plants of -the same species should have taken place on the coast of England, and -again on the coasts of the Continent generally,—and that identically -the same vegetation should have been originated in this way in at least -three great centres. And if plants of the same species could have had -three distinct centres of organization and development, why not three -hundred, or three thousand, or three hundred thousand? Nor will it do -to attempt escaping from the difficulty, by alleging that there is the -groundwork in the case of at least a common marine vegetation to start -from; and that thus, if we have not properly the existence of the direct -hereditary tie among the various individuals of each species, we may yet -recognize at least a sort of collateral relationship among them, derived -from the relationship of their marine ancestry. For relationship, in even -the primary stage, the author of the “Vestiges” virtually repudiates, by -adopting, as one of the foundations of his hypothesis, with, of course, -all the legitimate consequences, the experiments of Mr. Weekes. The -animalculæ-making process is instanced as representative of the first -stage of being,—that in which dead inorganic matter assumes vitality; -and it corresponds, in the zoological branch, to the production of a -low marine vegetation in the phytological one. A certain semi-chemical, -semi-electrical process, originates, time after time, certain numerous -low forms of life, identical in species, but connected by no tie of -relationship: such is the presumed result of the Weekes experiment. -A certain further process of development matures low forms of life, -thus originated, into higher species, also identical, and also wholly -unconnected by the family tie: such are the consequences legitimately -involved in that island-vegetation theory promulgated by the author of -the “Vestiges.” And be it remembered that Mr. Weekes’ process, so far as -it is simply electrical and chemical, is a process which is as capable -of having been gone through in all times and all places, as that other -process of strewing marl upon a moor, through which certain rustic -experimenters have held that they produced white clover. It could have -been gone through during the Carboniferous or the Silurian period; for -all truly chemical and electrical experiments would have resulted in -manifestations of the same phenomena then as now:—an acid would have -effervesced as freely with an alkali; and each fibre of an electrified -feather—had feathers then existed—would have stood out as decidedly apart -from all its neighbors. We must therefore hold, if we believe with the -author of the “Vestiges,” first, from the Weekes experiment, that in all -times, and in all places, every centre of a certain chemical and electric -action would have become a new centre of creation to certain _recent_ -species of low, but not _very_ low, organization; and, second, from his -doctrine regarding the identity of the British and Continental floras, -that in the course of subsequent development from these low forms, the -process in each of many widely-separated centres,—widely separated both -by space and time,—would be so nicely correspondent with the process in -all the others, that the same higher _recent_ forms would be matured in -all. And to doctrines such as these, the experience of all Geologists, -all Phytologists, all Zoologists, is diametrically opposed. If these -doctrines be true, _their_ sciences are false in their facts, and idle -and unfounded in their principles. - - - - -THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL. BEARING OF THE EXPERIENCE -ARGUMENT. - - -Is the reader acquainted with the graphic verse, and scarce less -graphic prose, in which Crabbe describes the appearances presented by -a terrestrial vegetation affected by the waters of the sea? In both -passages, as in all his purely descriptive writings, there is a solidity -of truthful observation exhibited, which triumphs over their general -homeliness of vein. - - “On either side - Is level fen, a prospect wild and wide, - With dykes on either hand, by ocean self-supplied. - Far on the right the distant sea is seen, - And salt the springs that feed the marsh between; - Beneath an ancient bridge the straitened flood - Rolls through its sloping banks of slimy mud; - Near it a sunken boat resists the tide, - That frets and hurries to the opposing side; - The rushes sharp, that on the borders grow, - Bend their brown florets to the stream below, - Impure in all its course, in all its progress slow. - Here a grave Flora scarcely deigns to bloom, - Nor wears a rosy blush, nor sheds perfume. - The few dull flowers that o’er the place are spread, - Partake the nature of their fenny bed; - Here on its wiry stem, in rigid bloom, - Grows the salt lavender, that lacks perfume; - Here the dwarf sallows creep, the septfoil harsh, - And the soft slimy mallow of the marsh. - Low on the ear the distant billows sound, - And just in view appears their stony bound.” - -“The ditches of a fen so near the ocean,” says the poet, in the note -which accompanies this passage, “are lined with irregular patches of a -coarse-stained laver; a muddy sediment rests on the horse-tail and other -perennial herbs which in part conceal the shallowness of the stream; a -fat-leaved, pale-flowering scurvy-grass appears early in the year, and -the razor-edged bullrush in the summer and autumn. The fen itself has a -dark and saline herbage: there are rushes and _arrow-head_; and in a few -patches the flakes of the cotton-grass are seen, but more commonly the -_sea-aster_, the dullest of that numerous and hardy genus; a _thrift_, -blue in flower, but withering, and remaining withered till the winter -scatters it; the _salt-wort_, both simple and shrubby; a few kinds of -grass changed by the soil and atmosphere; and low plants of two or three -denominations, undistinguished in the general view of scenery;—such is -the vegetation of the fen where it is at a small distance from the ocean.” - -And such are the descriptions of Crabbe, at once a poet and a botanist. -In referring to the blue tint exhibited in salt-fens by the pink-colored -flower of the _thrift_, (_Statice Armeria_,) he might have added, that -the general green of the terrestrial vegetation likewise assumes, when -subjected to those modified marine influences under which plants of -the land can continue to live, a decided tinge of blue. It is further -noticeable, that the general brown of at least the larger algæ presents, -as they creep upwards upon the beach to meet with these, a marked tinge -of yellow. The prevailing brown of the one flora approximates towards -yellow,—the prevailing green of the other towards blue; and thus, -instead of mutually merging into some neutral tint, they assume at their -line of meeting directly antagonistic hues. - -But what does experience say regarding the transmutative conversion of -a marine into a terrestrial vegetation,—that experience on which the -sceptic founds so much? As I walked along the green edge of the Lake -of Stennis, selvaged by the line of detached weeds with which a recent -gale had strewed its shores, and marked that for the first few miles the -accumulation consisted of marine algæ, here and there mixed with tufts -of stunted reeds or rushes, and that as I receded from the sea it was -the algæ that became stunted and dwarfish, and that the reeds, aquatic -grasses, and rushes, grown greatly more bulky in the mass, were also -more fully developed individually, till at length the marine vegetation -altogether disappeared, and the vegetable debris of the shore became -purely lacustrine,—I asked myself whether here, if anywhere, a transition -flora between lake and sea ought not to be found? For many thousand years -ere the tall gray obelisks of Stennis, whose forms I saw this morning -reflected in the water, had been torn from the quarry, or laid down in -mystic circle on their flat promontories, had this lake admitted the -waters of the sea, and been salt in its lower reaches and fresh in its -higher. And during this protracted period had its quiet, well-shattered -bottom been exposed to no disturbing influences through which the -delicate process of transmutation could have been marred or arrested. -Here, then, if in any circumstances, ought we to have had in the broad, -permanently brackish reaches, at least indications of a vegetation -intermediate in its nature between the monocotyledons of the lake and the -algæ of the sea; and yet not a vestige of such an intermediate vegetation -could I find among the up-piled debris of the mixed floras, marine -and lacustrine. The lake possesses no such intermediate vegetation. As -the water freshens in its middle reaches, the algæ become dwarfish and -ill-developed; one species after another ceases to appear, as the habitat -becomes wholly unfavorable to it, until at length we find, instead of -the brown, rootless, flowerless fucoids and confervæ of the ocean, the -green, rooted, flower-bearing flags, rushes, and aquatic grasses of -the fresh water. Many thousands of years have failed to originate a -single intermediate plant. And such, tested by a singularly extensive -experience, is the general evidence. - -There is scarce a chain-length of the shores of Britain and Ireland that -has not been a hundred and a hundred times explored by the botanist,—keen -to collect and prompt to register every rarity of the vegetable kingdom; -but has he ever yet succeeded in transferring to his herbarium a single -plant caught in the transition state? Nay, are there any of the laws -under which the vegetable kingdom exists better known than those laws -which fix certain species of the algæ to certain zones of coast, in which -each, according to the overlying depth of water and the nature of the -bottom, finds the only habitat in which it can exist? The rough-stemmed -tangle (_Laminaria digitata_) can exist no higher on the shore than -the low line of ebb during stream-tides; the smooth-stemmed tangle -(_Laminaria saccharina_) flourishes along an inner belt, partially -uncovered during the ebbs of the larger neaps; the forked and cracker -kelp-weeds (_Fucus serratus_ and _Fucus nodosus_) thrive in a zone still -less deeply covered by water, and which even the lower neaps expose. And -at least one other species of kelp-weed, the _Fucus vesiculosus_, occurs -in a zone higher still, though, as it creeps upwards on the rocky beach, -it loses its characteristic bladders, and becomes short and narrow of -frond. The thick brown tufts of _Fucus canaliculatus_, which in the lower -and middle reaches of the Lake of Stennis I found heaped up in great -abundance along the shores, also rises high on rocky beaches,—so high in -some instances, that during neap-tides it remains uncovered by the water -for days together. If, as is not uncommon, there be an escape of land -springs along the beach, there may be found, where the fresh water oozes -out through the sand and gravel, an upper terminal zone of the confervæ, -chiefly of a green color, mixed with the ribbon-like green layer, (_Ulva -latissima_,) the purplish-brown layer, (_Porphyra laciniata_,) and still -more largely with the green silky Enteromorpha, (_E. compressa_.)[37] -And then, decidedly within the line of the storm-beaches of winter,—not -unfrequently in low sheltered bays, such as the Bay of Udale or of -Nigg, where the ripple of every higher flood washes,—we may find the -vegetation of the land—represented by the sentinels and picquets of -its outposts—coming down, as if to meet with the higher-growing plants -of the sea. In salt marshes the two vegetations may be seen, if I may -so express myself, _dovetailed_ together at their edges,—at least one -species of club-rush (_Scirpus maritimus_) and the common saltwort and -glasswort (_Salsola kali_ and _Salicornia procumbens_) encroaching so far -upon the sea as to mingle with a thinly-scattered and sorely-diminished -fucus,—that bladderless variety of the _Fucus vesiculosus_ to which I -have already referred, and which may be detected in such localities, -shooting forth its minute brown fronds from the pebbles. On rocky -coasts, where springs of fresh water come trickling down along the -fissures of the precipices, the observer may see a variety of _Rhodomenia -palmata_—the fresh-water dulse of the Moray Frith—creeping upwards from -the lower limits of production, till just where the common gray balanus -ceases to grow. And there, short and thick, and of a bleached yellow -hue, _it_ ceases also; but one of the commoner marine confervæ,—the -_Conferva arcta_, blent with a dwarfed _Enteromorpha_,—commencing a -very little below where the dulse ends, and taking its place, clothes -over the runnels with its covering of green for several feet higher: -in some cases, where it is frequently washed by the upward dash of the -waves, it rises above even the flood-line; and in some crevice of the -rock beside it, often as low as its upper edge, we may detect stunted -tufts of the sea-pink or of the scurvy-grass. But while there is thus -a vegetation intermediate _in place_ between the land and the sea, we -find, as if it had been selected purposely to confound the transmutation -theory, that it is in no degree intermediate in character. For, while -it is chiefly marine weeds of the lower division of the confervæ that -creep upwards from the sea to meet the vegetation of the land, it is -chiefly terrestrial plants of the higher division of the dicotyledons -that creep downwards from the land to meet the vegetation of the sea. -The salt-worts, the glass-worts, the arenaria, the thrift, and the -scurvy-grass, are all dicotyledonous plants. Nature draws a deeply-marked -line of division where the requirements of the transmutative hypothesis -would demand the nicely graduated softness of a shaded one; and, -addressing the strongly marked floras on either hand, even more sternly -than the waves themselves, demands that to a certain definite bourne -should they come, and no farther. - -But in what form, it may be asked, or with what limitations, ought the -Christian controversialist to avail himself, in this question, of the -experience argument? Much ought to depend, I reply, on the position -taken up by the opposite side. We find no direct reference made by the -author of the “Vestiges” to the anti-miracle argument, first broached -by Hume, in a purely metaphysical shape, in his well-known “Inquiry,” -and afterwards thrown into the algebraic form by La Place, in his -_Essai philosophique sur les Probabilités_. But we do not detect its -influences operative throughout the entire work. It is because of -some felt impracticability on the part of its author, of attaining -to the prevailing belief in the _miracle_ of creation, that he has -recourse, instead, to the so-called _law_ of development. The _law_ and -the _miracle_ are the alternatives placed before him; and, rejecting -the _miracle_, he closes with the _law_. Now, in such circumstances, -he can have no more cause of complaint, if, presenting him with the -experience argument of Hume and La Place, we demand that he square -the evidence regarding the existence of his _law_ strictly according -to its requirements, than the soldier of an army that charged its -field-pieces with rusty nails would have cause of complaint if he found -himself wounded by a missile of a similar kind, sent against him by -the artillery of the enemy. You cannot, it might be fairly said, in -addressing him, acquiesce in the miracle here, because, as a violation of -the laws of nature, there are certain objections, founded on invariable -experience, which bear direct against your belief in it. Well, here -are the objections, in the strongest form in which they have yet been -stated; and here is your hypothesis respecting the development of marine -algæ into terrestrial plants. We hold that against that hypothesis -the objections bear at least as directly as against any miracle -whatever,—nay, that not only is it contrary to an invariable experience, -but opposed also to all testimony. We regard it as a mere idle dream. -Maillet dreamed it,—and Lamarck dreamed it,—and Oken dreamed it; but none -of them did more than merely dream it: its existence rests on exactly the -same basis of evidence as that of Whang the miller’s “monstrous pot of -gold and diamonds,” of which he dreamed three nights in succession, but -which he never succeeded in finding. If we are in error in our estimate, -here is the argument, and here the hypothesis; give us, in support of the -hypothesis, the amount of evidence, founded on a solid experience, which -the argument demands. - -But to leave the experience argument in exactly the state in which it -was left by Hume and La Place, would be doing no real justice to our -subject. It is in that state quite sufficient to establish the fact, -that there can be no real escape from belief in _acts of creation_ never -witnessed by man, to _processes of development_ never witnessed by man; -seeing that a presumed _law_ beyond the cognizance of experience must be -as certainly rejected, on the principle of the argument, as a presumed -_miracle_ beyond that cognizance. It places the presumed _law_ and the -presumed _miracle_ on exactly the same level. But there is a palpable -flaw in the anti-miracle argument. It does not prove that miracles _may -not have taken place_, but that miracles, whether they have taken place -or no, are _not to be credited_, and this simply because they _are_ -miracles, _i. e._ violations of the established laws of nature. And if it -be possible for events to take place which man, on certain principles, -is imperatively required not to credit, these principles must of course -serve merely to establish a discrepancy between the actual _state_ of -things, and what is to be _believed_ regarding it. And thus, instead of -serving purposes of truth, they are made to subserve purposes of error; -for the existence of truth in the mind is neither more nor less than the -existence of certain conceptions and beliefs, adequately representative -of what actually _is_, or what really _has taken place_. - -I cannot better illustrate this direct tendency of the anti-miracle -argument to destroy truth in the mind, by bringing the mental beliefs -into a state of nonconformity with the possible and actual, than by a -quotation from La Place himself: “We would not,” he says, “give credit -to a man who would affirm that he saw a hundred dice thrown into the -air, and that they all fell on the same faces. If we had ourselves been -spectators of such an event, we would not believe our own eyes till we -had scrupulously examined all the circumstances, and assured ourselves -that there was no trick or deception. After such an examination, we would -not hesitate to admit it, notwithstanding its great improbability; and no -one would have recourse to an inversion of the laws of vision in order to -account for it.” Now, here is the principle broadly laid down, that it -is impossible to communicate by the evidence of testimony, belief in an -event which _might_ happen, and which, if it happened, _ought_ on certain -conditions to be credited. No one knew better than La Place himself, that -the _possibility_ of the event which he instanced could be represented -with the utmost exactitude by figures. The probability, in throwing a -single die, that the ace will be presented on its upper face, is as one -in six,—six being the entire number of sides which the cube can possibly -present, and the side with the ace being one of these;—the probability -that in throwing a _pair_ of dice the aces of both will be at once -presented on their upper faces, is as one in thirty-six, as against the -one sixth chance of the ace being presented by the one, there are also -six chances that the ace of the other should not concur with it;—and in -throwing _three_ dice, the probability that their three aces should be at -once presented is, of course, on the same principle, as one in six times -thirty-six, or, in other words, as one in two hundred and sixteen. And -thus, in ascertaining the exact degree of probability of the hundred aces -at once turning up, we have to go on multiplying by six, for each die we -add to the number, the product of the immediately previous calculation. -Unquestionably, the number of chances _against_, thus balanced with -the single chance _for_, would be very great; but its existence as a -definite number would establish, with all the force of arithmetical -demonstration, the _possibility_ of the event; and if an eternity were -to be devoted to the throwing into the air of the hundred dice, it would -occur an _infinite number of times_. And yet the principle of Hume and La -Place forms, when adopted, an impassable gulf between this possibility -and human belief. The possibility might be embodied, as we see, in an -actual occurrence,—an occurrence witnessed by hundreds; and yet the -anti-miracle argument, as illustrated by La Place, would cut off all -communication regarding it between these hundreds of witnesses, however -unexceptionable their character as such, and the rest of mankind. The -principle, instead of giving us a right rule through which the beliefs -in the mind are to be rendered correspondent with the reality of things, -goes merely to establish a certain imperfection of transmission from one -mind to another, in consequence of which, realities in fact, if very -extraordinary ones, could not possibly be received as objects of belief, -nor the mental appreciation of things be rendered adequately concurrent -with the state in which the things really existed. - -Nor is the case different when, for a _possibility_ which the -arithmetician can represent by figures, we substitute the _miracle_ -proper. Neither Hume nor La Place ever attempted to show that miracles -could not take place; they merely directed their argument against a -belief in them. The wildest sceptic must admit, if in any degree a -reasonable man, that there _may_ exist a God, and that that God _may_ -have given laws to nature. No _demonstration_ of the non-existence of a -Great First Cause has been ever yet attempted, nor, until the knowledge -of some sceptic extends over all space, ever _can_ be rationally -attempted. Merely to _doubt_ the fact of God’s existence, and to give -reasons for the doubt, must till then form the highest achievements of -scepticism. And the God who _may_ thus exist, and who _may_ have given -laws to nature, _may_ also have revealed himself to man, and, in order to -secure man’s reasonable belief in the reality of the revelation, _may_ -have temporarily suspended in its operation some great natural law, -and have thus shown himself to be its Author and Master. Such seems to -be the philosophy of miracles; which are thus evidently not only _not_ -impossibilities, but even not _improbabilities_. Even were we to permit -the sceptic himself to fix the numbers representative of those several -_mays_ in the case, which I have just repeated, the chances against -them, so to speak, would be less by many thousand times than the chances -against the hundred dice of La Place’s illustration all turning up -aces. The existence of a Great First Cause is at least as probable—the -sceptic himself being judge in the matter—as the _non_-existence of a -Great First Cause; and so the probability in this first stage of the -argument, instead of being, as in the case of the single die, only one -to six, is as one to one. Again,—in accordance with an expectation so -general among the human family as to form one of the great instincts of -our nature,—an instinct to which every form of religion, true or false, -bears evidence,—it is in no degree less probable that this God should -have revealed himself to man, than that he should _not_ have revealed -himself to man; and here the chances are again as one to one,—not, as in -the second stage of the calculation on the dice, as one to thirty-six. -Nor, in the third and last stage, is it less probable that God, in -revealing himself to man should have given miraculous evidence of the -truth of the revelation, so that man “might believe in Him for His work’s -sake,” than that He should _not_ have done so; and here yet again the -chances are as one to one,—not as one to two hundred and sixteen. No -rational sceptic could fix the chances lower; nay, no rational sceptic, -so far as the _existence_ of a Great First Cause is concerned, would be -inclined to fix them so low: and yet it is in order to annihilate all -belief in a possibility against which the chances are so few as to be -represented—scepticism itself being the actuary in the case—by three -units, that Hume and La Place have framed their argument. Miracles _may_ -have taken place,—the probabilities against them, stated in their most -extreme and exaggerated form, are by no means many or strong; but we are -nevertheless not to believe that they _did_ take place, simply because -miracles they were. Now, the effect of the establishment of a principle -such as this would be simply, I repeat, the destruction of the ability -of transmitting certain beliefs, however well founded originally, from -one set or generation of men to another. These beliefs the first set -or generation might, on La Place’s own principles, be compelled to -entertain. The evidence of the senses, however wonderful the event -which they certified, is not, he himself tells us, to be resisted. But -the conviction which, on one set of principles, these men were on no -account to resist, the men that came immediately after them were, on -quite another set of principles, on no account to entertain. And thus -the anti-miracle argument, instead of leading, as all true philosophy -ought, to an exact correspondence between the realities of things and -the convictions received by the mind regarding them, palpably forms a -bar to the reception of beliefs, adequate to the possibilities of actual -occurrence or event, and so constitutes an imperfection or flaw in the -mental economy, instead of working an improvement. And, in accordance -with this view, we find that in the economy of minds of the very highest -order this imperfection or flaw has had no place. Locke studied and wrote -upon the subject of miracles proper, and exhibited in his “Discourse” -all the profundity of his extraordinary mind; and yet Locke was a -believer. Newton studied and wrote on the subject of miracles of another -kind,—those of prophecy; and he also, as shown by his “Observations on -the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse,” was a believer. Butler -studied and wrote on the subject of miracles, chiefly in connection with -“Miraculous Revelation;” and he also was a believer. Chalmers studied -and wrote on the subject of miracles in his “Evidences,” after Hume, La -Place, and Playfair had all promulgated their peculiar views regarding -it; and he also was a believer. And in none of the truly distinguished -men of the present day, though all intimately acquainted with the -anti-miracle argument, is this flaw or imperfection found to exist: on -the contrary, they all hold, as becomes the philosophic intellect and -character, that whatever is possible may occur, and that whatever occurs -ought, on the proper evidence, to be believed. - -But though the experience argument is of no real force, and, as shown by -the beliefs of the higher order of minds, of no real effect, when brought -to bear against miracles supported by the proper testimony, _it is_ of -great force and effect when brought to bear, not against _miracles_, -but against some presumed _law_. It is experience, and experience only, -that determines what is or is not law, and it is law, and law only, -that constitutes the subject-matter of ordinary experience. Experience, -in determining what is really miracle, does so simply through its -positive knowledge of law: by knowing law, it knows also what would be a -violation of it. And so miracle cannot possibly form the subject-matter -of experience in the sense of Hume. For did miracle constitute the -subject-matter of experience, the law of which the miracle was a -violation _could not_: most emphatically, in this case, were there “no -law” there could be “no transgression;” and so experience would be unable -to recognize, not only the existence of the law transgressed, but also -of the miracle, in its character as such, which was a transgression of -the law. We determine from experience that there exists a certain fixed -law, known among men as the law of gravitation; and that, in consequence -of this law, if a human creature attempt standing upon the sea, he will -sink into it; or if he attempt rising from the earth into the heavens, -he will remain fixed to the spot on which the attempt is made. Such, in -these cases, would be the direct effects of this gravitation _law_; and -any presumed law antagonistic in its character could not be other than a -law contrary to that invariable experience by which the existence of the -real law in the case is determined. But certain it is—for the evidence -regarding the facts cannot be resisted, and by the greatest minds has -not been resisted—that a man _did_ once walk upon the sea without -sinking into it, and _did_ once ascend from the earth into the sky; and -these _miracles_ ought not to be tested—and by earnest inquirers after -truth really never have been tested—by any experience of the uniformity -of the law of which they were professed transgressions, seeing it was -essentially and obviously necessary that, in order to serve the great -moral purpose which God intended by them, the law which they violated -should have been a uniform law, and that they should have been palpable -violations of it. But while the experience argument is thus of no -value when directed against well-attested _miracle_, it is, as I have -said, all-potent when directed against presumed _law_. Of law we know -nothing, I repeat, except what experience tells us. A miracle contrary -to experience in the sense of Hume is simply a miracle; a presumed law -contrary to experience is no law at all. For it is from experience, and -experience only, that we know any thing of natural law. The argument -of Hume and La Place is perfect, as such, when directed against the -development visions of the Lamarckian. - - - - -THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYONIC STATE. OLDER THAN ITS ALLEGED -FOUNDATIONS. - - -When Maillet first promulgated his hypothesis, many of the departments -of natural history existed as mere regions of fable and romance; and, -in addressing himself to the _Muscadins_ of Paris, in a popular work as -wild and amusing as a fairy tale, he could safely take the liberty, and -he did take it very freely, of exaggerating the marvellous, and adding -fresh fictions to the untrue. And in preparing them for his theory of -the metamorphoses of a marine into a terrestrial vegetation, he set -himself, in accordance with his general character, to show that really -the transmutation did not amount to much. “I know you have resided a -long time,” his Indian Philosopher is made to say, “at Marseilles. Now, -you can bear me witness, that the fishermen there daily find in their -nets, and among their fish, plants of a hundred kinds, with their fruits -still upon them; and though these fruits are not so large and so well -nourished as those of our earth, yet the species of these plants is in -no other respect dubious. They there find clusters of white and black -grapes, peach-trees, pear-trees, prune-trees, apple-trees, and all sorts -of flowers. When in that city, I saw, in the cabinet of a curious -gentleman, a prodigious number of those sea-productions of different -qualities, especially of rose-trees, which had their roses very red when -they came out of the sea. I was there presented with a cluster of black -sea-grapes. It was at the time of the vintage, and there were two grapes -perfectly ripe.” - -Now, all this, and much more of the same nature, addressed to the -Parisians of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, passed, I doubt not, -wonderfully well; but it will not do now, when almost every young girl, -whether in town or country, is a botanist, and works on the algæ have -become popular. Since Maillet wrote, Hume promulgated his argument on -Miracles, and La Place his doctrine of Probabilities. There can be no -doubt that these have exerted a wholesome influence on the laws of -evidence; and by these laws, as restricted and amended,—laws to which, -both in science and religion, we ourselves conform,—we insist on trying -the Lamarckian hypothesis, and in condemning it,—should it be found to -have neither standing in experience nor support from testimony,—as a -mere feverish dream, incoherent in its parts and baseless in its fabric. -Give, we ask, but one well-attested instance of transmutation from the -algæ to even the lower forms of terrestrial vegetation common on our -sea-coasts, and we will keep the question open, in expectation of more. -It will not do to tell us—as Cuvier was told, when he appealed to the -fact, determined by the mummy birds and reptiles of Egypt, of the fixity -of species in all, even the slightest particulars, for at least three -thousand years—that immensely extended periods of time are necessary to -effect specific changes, and that human observation has not been spread -over a period sufficiently ample to furnish the required data regarding -them. The apology is simply a confession that, in these ages of the -severe inductive philosophy, you have been dreaming your dream, cut off, -as if by the state of sleep, from all the tangibilities of the real -waking-day world, and that you have not a vestige of testimony with which -to support your ingenious vagaries. - -But on another account do we refuse to sustain the excuse. It is -_not true_ that human observation has not been spread over a period -sufficiently extended to furnish the necessary data for testing the -development hypothesis. In one special walk,—that which bears on the -supposed transmutation of algæ into terrestrial plants,—human observation -_has_ been spread over what is strictly analogous to _millions_ of years. -For extent of space in this matter is exactly correspondent with duration -of time. No man, in this late period of the world’s history, attains to -the age of five hundred years; and as some of our larger English oaks -have been known to increase in bulk of trunk and extent of bough for five -centuries together, no man can possibly have seen the same huge oak pass, -according to Cowper, through its various stages of “treeship,”— - - “First a seedling hid in grass; - Then twig; then sapling; and, as century rolls - Slow after century, a giant bulk, - Of girth enormous, with moss-cushioned root - Upheaved above the soil, and sides embossed - With prominent wens globose.” - -But though no man lives throughout five hundred years of time, he can -trace, by passing in some of the English forests through five hundred -yards of space, the history of the oak in all its stages of growth, as -correctly as if he _did_ live throughout the five hundred years. Oaks, in -the space of a few hundred yards, may be seen in every stage of growth, -from the newly burst acorn, that presents to the light its two fleshy -lobes, with the first tender rudiments of a leaflet between, up to the -giant of the forest, in the hollow of whose trunk the red deer may -shelter, and find ample room for the broad spread of his antlers. The -fact of the development of the oak, from the minute two-lobed seedling of -a week’s growth up to the gigantic tree of five centuries, is as capable -of being demonstrated by observation spread over five hundred yards of -space, as by observation spread over five hundred years of time. And -be it remembered, that the sea-coasts of the world are several hundred -thousand miles in extent. Europe is by far the smallest of the earth’s -four large divisions, and it is bounded, in proportion to its size, by a -greater extent of land than any of the others. And yet the sea-coasts of -Europe alone, including those of its islands, exceed twenty-five thousand -miles. We have results before us, in this extent of space, identical -with those of many hundred thousand years of time; and if terrestrial -plants were as certainly developments of the low plants of the sea as -the huge oak is a development of the immature seedling, just sprung from -the acorn, so vast a stretch of sea-coast could not fail to present us -with the intermediate vegetation in all its stages. But the sea-coasts -fail to exhibit even a vestige of the intermediate vegetation. Experience -spread over an extent of space analogous to millions of years of time, -does not furnish, in this department, a single fact corroborative of the -development theory, but, on the contrary, many hundreds of facts that -bear directly against it. - -The author of the “Vestiges” is evidently a practised and tasteful -writer, and his work abounds in ingenious combinations of thought; but -those powers of abstract reflection on whose vigorous exercise the -origination of argument depends, nature seems to have denied him. There -are two things in especial which his work wants,—_original observation_ -and _abstract thought_,—the power of _seeing_ for himself and of -_reasoning_ for himself; and what we find instead is simply a vivid -appreciation of the _images_ of things, as these images exist in other -minds, and a vigorous perception of the various shades of resemblance -which obtain among them. There is a large amount of analogical power -exhibited; but that basis of truth which correct observation can alone -furnish, and that ability of nicely distinguishing differences by -which the faculty of discerning similarity must be forever regulated -and governed, are wanting, in what, in a mind of fine general texture -and quality, must be regarded as an extraordinary degree. And hence an -ingenious but very unsolid work,—full of images transferred, not from the -scientific field, but from the field of _scientific mind_, and charged -with glittering but vague resemblances, stamped in the mint of fancy; -which, were they to be used as mere counters in some light literary game -of story-telling or character-sketching, would be in no respect out of -place, but which, when passed current as the proper coin of philosophic -argument, are really frauds on the popular understanding. There are, -however, not a few instances in the “Vestiges” and its “Sequel,” in which -that defect of reflective power to which I refer rather enhances than -diminishes the difficulty of reply, by presenting to the controversialist -mere intangible clouds with which to grapple; that yet, through the -existence of a certain superstition in the popular mind, as predisposed -to accept as true whatever takes the form of science, as its predecessor -the old superstition was inclined a century ago to reject science itself, -are at least suited to blind and bewilder. Of this kind of difficulty, -the following passage, in which the author of the work cashiers the -Creator as such, and substitutes, instead, a mere animal-manufacturing -piece of clock-work, which bears the name of natural law,[38] furnishes -us with a remarkable instance. - -“Admitting,” he remarks, “that we see not now any such fact as the -production of new species, we at least know, that while such facts were -occurring upon earth, there were associated phenomena in progress of -a character perfectly ordinary. For example, when the earth received -its first fishes, sandstone and limestone were forming in the manner -exemplified a few years ago in the ingenious experiments of Sir James -Hall; basaltic columns rose for the future wonder of man, according to -the principle which Dr. Gregory Watt showed in operation before the -eyes of our fathers; and hollows in the igneous rocks were filled with -crystals, precisely as they could now be by virtue of electric action, -as shown within the last few years by Crosse and Becquerel. The seas -obeyed the impulse of gentle breezes, and rippled their sandy bottoms, -as seas of the present day are doing; the trees grew as now, by favor -of sun and wind, thriving in good seasons and pining in bad: this -while the animals above fishes were yet to be created. The movements -of the sea, the meteorological agencies, the disposition which we see -in the generality of plants to thrive when heat and moisture were most -abundant, were kept up in silent serenity, as matters of simply natural -order, throughout the whole of the ages which saw reptiles enter in -their various forms upon the sea and land. It was about the time of the -first mammals that the forest of the Dirt-Bed was sinking in natural -ruin amidst the sea sludge, as forests of the Plantagenets have been -doing for several centuries upon the coast of England. In short _all the -common operations of the physical world were going on in their usual -simplicity, obeying that order which we still see governing them_; while -the supposed extraordinary causes were in requisition for the development -of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. There surely hence arises a strong -presumption against any such causes. It becomes much more likely that -the latter phenomena were evolved in the manner of law also, and that we -only dream of extraordinary causes here, as men once dreamt of a special -action of Deity in every change of wind and the results of each season, -merely because they did not know the laws by which the events in question -were evolved.” - -How, let us suppose, would David Hume—the greatest thinker of which -infidelity can boast—have greeted the auxiliary who could have brought -him such an _argument_ as a contribution to the cause? “Your objection, -so far as you have stated it,” the philosopher might have said, “amounts -simply to this:—Creation by direct act is a miracle; whereas all that -exists is _propagated_ and _maintained_ by natural law. Natural laws—to -vary the illustration—were in full operation at the period when the -Author of the Christian religion was, it is said, engaged in working -his miracles. When, according to our opponents, he walked upon the -surface of the sea, Peter, through the operation of the natural law of -gravitation, was sinking into it; when he withered, by a word, the barren -fig-tree, there were other trees on the Mount thriving in conformity -with the vegetative laws, under the influence of sun and shower; when -he raised the dead Lazarus, there were corpses in the neighboring tombs -passing, through the natural putrefactive fermentation, into a state -of utter decomposition. In fine, at the time when he was engaged, as -Reid and Campbell believe, in working miracles in violation of law, the -laws of which these were a violation actually existed, and were every -where actively operative; or, to employ your own words, when the New -Testament miracles were, it is alleged, in the act of being wrought, -‘all the common operations of the physical world were going on in their -usual simplicity, obeying that order which we still see governing them.’ -Such is the portion of your statement already made; what next?” “It is -surely very unlikely,” replies the auxiliary, “that in such a complex -mass of phenomena there should have been two totally distinct modes -of the exercise of the Divine power,—the mode by miracle and the mode -by law.” “Unlikely!” rejoins the philosopher; “on what grounds?” “O, -just _unlikely_,” says the auxiliary;—“unlikely that God should be at -once operating on matter through the agency of natural laws, of which -_man knows much_, and through the agency of miraculous acts, of the -nature of which _man knows nothing_. But I have not thought out the -subject any further: you have, in the statement already made, my entire -_argument_.” “Ay, I see,” the author of the “Essay on Miracles” would -probably have remarked; “you deem it unlikely that Deity should not only -work in part, as he has always done, by means of which _men_,—clever -fellows like you and me—think they know a great deal but that he should -also work in part, _as he has always done_, by means of which they know -nothing at all. Admirably reasoned out! You are, I make no doubt, a -sound, zealous unbeliever in your private capacity, and your argument -may have great weight with your own mind, and be, in consequence, worthy -of encouragement in a small way; but allow me to suggest that, for -the sake of the general cause, it should be kept out of reach of the -enemy. There are in the Churches Militant on both sides of the Tweed -shrewd combatants, who have nearly as much wit as ourselves.” I think I -understand the reference of the author of the “Vestiges” to the _dream_ -“of a special action of Deity in every change of wind and the results of -each season.” Taken with what immediately goes before, it means something -considerably different from those fancies of the “untutored Indian,” who, -according to the poet, - - “Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.” - -There is a school of infidelity, tolerably well known in the capital -of Scotland as by far the most superficial which our country has yet -seen, that measures mind with a tape-line and the callipers, and, albeit -not Christian, laudably exemplifies, in a loudly expressed regard for -science, the Christian grace of loving its enemy. And the belief in a -special Providence, who watches over and orders all things, and without -whose permission there falleth not even a “sparrow to the ground,” the -apostles of this school set wholly aside, substituting, instead, a belief -in the indiscriminating operation of natural laws; as if, with the broad -fact before them that even man can work out his will merely by knowing -and directing these laws, the God by whom they were instituted should -lack either the power or the wisdom to make them the pliant ministers -of _his_. It is, I fear, to the distinctive tenet in the creed of this -hapless school that the author of the “Vestiges” refers. Nor is it in the -least surprising, that a writer who labors through two carefully written -volumes,[39] to destroy the existing belief in “God’s works of Creation,” -should affect to hold that the belief in his “works of Providence” had -been destroyed already. But faith in a special superintendence of Deity -is not yet dead: nay, more, He who created the human mind took especial -care, in its construction, that, save in a few defective specimens of the -race, the belief should never die. - -The author of the “Vestiges” complains of the illiberality with which -he has been treated. “It has appeared to various critics,” we find -him saying, “that very sacred principles are threatened by a doctrine -of universal law. A natural origin of life, and a natural basis in -organization for the operations of the human mind, speak to them of -fatalism and materialism. And, strange to say, those who every day give -views of _physical cosmogony_ altogether discrepant in appearance with -that of Moses, apply hard names to my book for suggesting an _organic -cosmogony_ in the same way, liable to inconsiderate odium. I must firmly -protest against this mode of meeting speculations regarding nature. -The object of my book, whatever may be said of the manner in which -it is treated, is purely scientific. The views which I give of the -history of organization stand exactly on the same ground upon which the -geological doctrines stood fifty years ago. I am merely endeavoring to -read aright another chapter of the mystic book which God has placed -under the attention of his creatures.... The absence of all liberality -in my reviewers is striking, and especially so in those whose geological -doctrines have exposed them to similar misconstruction. If the men newly -emerged from the odium which was thrown upon Newton’s theory of the -planetary motions had rushed forward to turn that odium upon the patrons -of the dawning science of Geology, they would have been prefiguring the -conduct of several of my critics, themselves hardly escaped from the -rude hands of the narrow-minded, yet eager to join that rabble against -a new and equally unfriended stranger, as if such were the best means -of purchasing impunity for themselves. _I trust that a little time will -enable the public to penetrate this policy._” - -Now, there is one very important point to which the author of this -complaint does not seem to have adverted. The astronomer founded his -belief in the mobility of the earth and the immobility of the sun, not on -a mere dream-like hypothesis, founded on nothing, but on a wide and solid -base of pure induction. Galileo was no mere dreamer;—he was a discoverer -of great truths, and a profound reasoner regarding them: and on his -discoveries and his reasonings, compelled by the inexorable laws of his -mental constitution, did he build up certain deductive beliefs, which had -no previous existence in his mind. His convictions were consequents, not -antecedents. Such, also, is the character of geological discovery and -inference, and of the existing belief,—their joint production,—regarding -the great antiquity of the globe. No geologist worthy of the name _began_ -with the belief, and then set himself to square geological phenomena -with its requirements. It is a deduction,—a result;—not the starting -assumption, or given sum, in a process of calculation, but its ultimate -finding or answer. Clergymen of the orthodox Churches, such as the -Sumners, Sedgwicks, Bucklands, Conybeares, and Pye Smiths of England, -or the Chalmerses, Duncans, and Flemings of our own country, must have -come to the study of this question of the world’s age with at least no -bias in favor of the geological estimate. The old, and, as it has proven, -erroneous reading of the Mosaic account, was by much too general a one -early in the present century, not to have exerted upon them, in their -character as ministers of religion, a sensible influence of a directly -opposite nature. And the fact of the complete reversal of their original -bias, and of the broad unhesitating finding on the subject which they -ultimately substituted instead, serves to intimate to the uninitiated the -strength of the evidence to which they submitted. There can be nothing -more certain than that it is minds of the same calibre and class, engaged -in the same inductive track, that yielded in the first instance to the -astronomical evidence regarding the earth’s motion, and, in the second, -to the geological evidence regarding the earth’s age.[40] - -But how very different the nature and history of the development -hypothesis, and the character of the intellects with whom it originated, -or by whom it has been since adopted! In the first place, it existed -as a wild dream ere Geology had any being as a science. It was an -antecedent, not a consequent,—a starting assumption, not a result. No -one will contend that Maillet was a geologist. Geology has no place among -the sciences in the age in which he lived and even no name. And yet -there is a translation of his _Telliamed_ now lying before me, bearing -date 1750, in which I find very nearly the same account given of the -origin of animals and plants as that in the “Vestiges,” and in which -the sea is described as that great and fruitful womb of nature in which -organization and life first began. Lamarck, at the time when Maillet -wrote, was a boy in his sixth year. He became, comparatively early in -life, a skilful botanist and conchologist; but not until turned of fifty -did he set himself to study general zoology; and his greater work on -the invertebrate animals, on which his fame as a naturalist chiefly -rests, did not _begin_ to appear—for it was published serially—until -the year 1815. But his development hypothesis, identical with that -of the “Vestiges,” was given to the world long before,—in 1802; at -a time when it had not been ascertained that there existed placoids -during the Silurian period, or ganoids during the Old Red Sandstone -period, or enaliosaurs during the Oolitic period; and when, though -Smith had constructed his “Tabular View of the British Strata,” his map -had not yet appeared, and there was little more known regarding the -laws of superposition among the stratified rocks than was to be found -in the writings of Werner. And if the presumption be strong, in the -circumstances, that Lamarck originated his development hypothesis ere -he became in any very great degree skilful as a zoologist, it is no -mere presumption, but a demonstrable truth, that he originated it ere -he became a geologist; for a geologist he never became. In common with -Maillet and Buffon, he held by Leibnitz’s theory of a universal ocean; -and such, as we have already seen, was his ignorance of fossils, that -he erected dermal fragments of the Russian _Asterolepis_ into a new -genus of Polyparia,—an error into which the merest tyro in palæontology -could not now fall. Such, in relation to these sciences, was the man -who perfected the dream of development. Nor has the most distinguished -of its continental assertors now living,—Professor Oken,—any higher -claim to be regarded as a disciple of the inductive school of Geology -than Lamarck. In the preface to the recently published translation of -his “Physio-Philosophy,” we find the following curious confession:—“I -wrote the first edition of 1810 _in a kind of inspiration_, and on that -account it was not so well arranged as a systematic work ought to be. -Now, though this may appear to have been amended in the second and third -edition, yet still it was not possible for me to completely attain the -object held in view. The book has therefore remained essentially the -same as regards its fundamental principles. It is only the empirical -arrangement into series of plants and animals that has been modified -from time to time, _in accordance with the scientific elevation of their -several departments, or just as discoveries and anatomical investigations -have increased, and rendered some other position of the objects a matter -of necessity_.” An interesting piece of evidence this; but certainly -rather simple as a confession. It will be found that while whatever gives -value to the “Physio-Philosophy” of the German Professor (a work which, -if divested of all the inspired bits, would be really a good one) was -acquired either before or since its first appearance in the ordinary way, -its development hypothesis came direct from the god. Further, as I have -already had occasion to state, Oken holds, like Lamarck and Maillet, by -the universal ocean of Leibnitz; he holds, also, that the globe is a vast -crystal, just a little flawed in the facets: and that the three granitic -components—quartz, feldspar, and mica—are simply the hail-drops of heavy -stone showers that shot athwart the original ocean, and accumulated into -rock at the bottom, as snow or hail shoots athwart the upper atmosphere, -and accumulates, in the form of ice, on the summits of high hills, or -in the arctic or antarctic regions. Such, in the present day, are the -geological notions of Oken! They were doubtless all promulgated in what -is modestly enough termed “a _kind_ of inspiration;” and there are few -now so ignorant of Geology as not to know that the _possessing_ agent in -the case—for _inspiration_ is not quite the proper word—must have been -at least of kin to that ingenious personage who volunteered of old to -be a lying spirit in the mouths of the four hundred prophets. And the -well-known fact, that the most popular contemporary expounder of Oken’s -hypothesis—the author of the “Vestiges”—has in every edition of his work -been correcting, modifying, or altogether withdrawing his statements -regarding both geological and zoological phenomena, and that his gradual -development as a geologist and zoologist, from the sufficiently low type -of acquirement to which his first edition bore witness, may be traced, in -consequence, with a distinctness and certainty which we in vain seek in -the cases of presumed development which he would so fain establish,—has -in its bearing exactly the same effect. His development hypothesis was -complete at a time when his geology and zoology were rudimental and -imperfect. Give me your facts, said the Frenchman, that I may accommodate -them to my theory. And no one can look at the progress of the Lamarckian -hypothesis, with reference to the dates when, and the men by whom, it was -promulgated, without recognizing in it one of perhaps the most striking -embodiments of the Frenchman’s principle which the world ever saw. It is -not the illiberal religionist that rejects and casts it off,—it is the -inductive philosopher. Science addresses its assertors in the language of -the possessed to the sons of Sceva the Jew;—“The astronomer I know, and -the geologist I know; but who are ye?” - -One of the strangest passages in the “Sequel to the Vestiges,” is that -in which its author carries his appeal from the tribunal of science to -“another tribunal,” indicated but not named, before which “this new -philosophy” [remarkable chiefly for being neither philosophy nor new] “is -to be truly and righteously judged.” The principle is obvious, on which, -were his opponents mere theologians, wholly unable, though they saw -the mischievous character and tendency of his conclusions, to disprove -them scientifically, he might appeal from theology to science: “it is -with scientific truth,” he might urge, “not with moral consequences, -that I have aught to do.” But on what allowable principle, professing, -as he does, to found his theory on scientific fact, can he appeal from -science to the want of it? “After discussing,” he says, “the whole -arguments on both sides in so ample a manner, it may be hardly necessary -to advert to the objection arising from the mere fact, that nearly all -the scientific men are opposed to the theory of the ‘Vestiges.’ As this -objection, however, is likely to be of some avail with many minds, it -ought not to be entirely passed over. If I did not think there were -reasons, independent of judgment, for the scientific class coming so -generally to this conclusion, I might feel the more embarrassed in -presenting myself in direct opposition to so many men possessing talents -and information. As the case really stands, the ability of this class to -give at the present a true response upon such a subject appears extremely -challengeable. It is no discredit to them that they are, almost without -exception, engaged each in his own little department of science, and -able to give little or no attention to other parts of that vast field. -From year to year, and from age to age, we see them at work, adding, no -doubt, much to the known, and advancing many important interests, but -at the same time doing little for the establishment of comprehensive -views of nature Experiments in however narrow a walk, facts of whatever -minuteness, make reputations in scientific societies; all beyond -is regarded with suspicion and distrust. The consequence is, that -philosophy, as it exists amongst us, does nothing to raise its votaries -above the common ideas of their time. There can therefore be nothing -more conclusive against our hypothesis in the disfavor of the scientific -class, than in that of any other section of educated men.” - -This is surely a very strange statement. Waiving altogether the _general_ -fact, that great original discoverers in any department of knowledge are -never men of one science or one faculty, but possess, on the contrary, -breadth of mind and multiplicity of acquirement;—waiving, too, the -_particular_ fact, that the more distinguished original discoverers of -the present day rank among at once its most philosophic, most elegant, -and most extensively informed writers;—granting, for the argument’s sake, -that our scientific men _are_ men of narrow acquirement, and “exclusively -engaged, each in his own little department of science;”—it is surely -rational to hold, notwithstanding, that in at least these little -departments they have a better right to be heard than any other class of -persons whatever. We must surely not refuse to the man of science what we -at once grant to the common mechanic. A cotton-weaver or calico-printer -may be a very narrow man, “exclusively engaged in his own little -department;” and yet certain it is that, in a question of cotton-weaving -or calico-printing, his evidence is justly deemed more conclusive in -courts of law than that of any other man, however much his superior in -general breadth and intelligence. And had the author of the “Vestiges” -founded his hypothesis on certain facts pertaining to the arts of -cotton-weaving and calico-printing, the cotton-weaver and calico-printer -would have an indisputable right to be heard on the question of their -general correctness. Are we to regard the case as different because -it is on facts pertaining to science, not to cotton-weaving or -calico-printing, that he professes to found? His hypothesis, unless -supported by scientific evidence, is a mere dream,—a fiction as baseless -and wild as any in the “Fairy Tales” or the “Arabian Nights.” And, fully -sensible of the fact, he calls in as witnesses the physical sciences, and -professes to take down their evidence. He calls into court Astronomy, -Geology, Phytology, and Zoology. “Hold!” exclaims the astronomer, as the -examination goes on; “you are taking the evidence of my special science -most unfairly; I challenge a right of cross-examining the witness.” -“Hold!” cries the geologist; “you are putting my science to the question, -and extorting from it, in its agony, a whole series of fictions: I -claim the right of examining it fairly and softly, and getting from -it just the sober truth, and nothing more.” And the phytologist and -zoologist urge exactly similar claims. “No, gentlemen,” replies the -author of the “Vestiges,” “you are narrow men, confined each of you to -his own little department, and so I will not permit you to cross-examine -the witnesses.” “What!” rejoin the men of science, “not permit us to -examine our own witnesses!—refuse to us what you would at once concede -to the cotton-weaver or the calico-printer, were the question one of -cotton-weaving or of calico-printing! We are surely not much narrower -men than the man of cotton or the man of calico. It is but in our own -little departments that we ask to be heard.” “But you shall not be heard, -gentlemen,” says the author of the “Vestiges;” “at all events, I shall -not care one farthing for anything you say. For observe, gentlemen, my -hypothesis is nothing without the evidence of your sciences; and you all -unite, I see, in taking that evidence from me; and so I confidently raise -my appeal in this matter to people who know nothing about either you or -your sciences. It must be before another tribunal that the new philosophy -is to be truly and righteously judged.” Alas! what can this mean? or -where are we to seek for that tribunal of last resort to which this -ingenious man refers with such confidence the consideration of his case? -Can it mean, that he appeals from the only class of persons qualified to -judge of his facts, to a class ignorant of these, but disposed by habits -of previous scepticism to acquiesce in his conclusions, and take his -premises for granted;—that he appeals from astronomers and geologists to -low-minded materialists and shallow phrenologers,—from phytologists and -zoologists to mesmerists and phreno-mesmerists? - -I remember being much struck, several years ago, by a remark dropped in -conversation by the late Rev. Mr. Stewart of Cromarty, one of the most -original-minded men I ever knew. “In reading in my Greek New Testament -this morning,” he said, “I was curiously impressed by a thought which, -simple as it may seem, never occurred to me before. The portion which -I perused was in the First Epistle of Peter; and as I passed from the -thinking of the passage to the language in which it is expressed,—‘This -Greek of the untaught Galilean fisherman,’—I said, ‘so admired by -scholars and critics for its unaffected dignity and force, was not -acquired, as that of Paul may have been, in the ordinary way, but formed -a portion of the Pentecostal gift! Here, then, immediately under my eye, -on these pages, are there embodied, not, as in many other parts of the -Scriptures, the mere _details_ of a miracle, but the direct _results_ of -a miracle. How strange! Had the old tables of stone been placed before -me, with what an awe-struck feeling would I have looked on the characters -traced upon them by God’s own finger! How is it that I have failed to -remember that, in the language of these Epistles, miraculously impressed -by the Divine power upon the mind, I possessed as significant and -suggestive a relic as that which the inscription miraculously impressed -by the Divine power upon the stone could possibly have furnished?” It -was a striking thought; and in the course of our walk, which led us over -richly fossiliferous beds of the Old Red Sandstone, to a deposit of the -Eathie Lias, largely charged with the characteristic remains of that -formation, I ventured to connect it with another. “In either case,” I -remarked, as we seated ourselves beside a sea-cliff, sculptured over with -the impressions of extinct plants and shells, “your relics, whether of -the Pentecostal Greek or of the characters inscribed on the old tables of -stone, could address themselves to but previously existing belief. The -sceptic would see in the Sinaitic characters, were they placed before -him, merely the work of an ordinary tool; and in the Greek of Peter and -John, a well-known language, acquired, he would hold, in the common way. -But what say you to the relics that stand out in such bold relief from -the rocks beside us, in _their_ character as the results of miracle? The -perished tribes and races which they represent all _began_ to exist. -There is no truth which science can more conclusively demonstrate than -that they had all a beginning. The infidel who, in this late age of -the world, would attempt falling back on the fiction of an ‘infinite -series,’ would be laughed to scorn. They all began to be. But how? No -true geologist holds by the development hypothesis;—it has been resigned -to sciolists and smatterers;—and there is but one other alternative. -They began to be, _through the miracle of creation_. From the evidence -furnished by these rocks we are shut down either to the belief in -_miracle_, or to the belief in something else infinitely harder of -reception, and as thoroughly unsupported by testimony as it is contrary -to experience. Hume is at length answered by the severe truths of the -stony science. He was not, according to Job, ‘in league with the stones -of the field,’ and they have risen in irresistible warfare against him in -the Creator’s behalf.” - - - - -FINAL CAUSES.—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY. CONCLUSION. - - -“Natural History has a principle on which to reason,” says Cuvier, “which -is peculiar to it, and which it employs advantageously on many occasions: -it is that of the _conditions of existence_, commonly termed _final -causes_.” - -In Geology, which is Natural History extended over all ages, -this principle has a still wider scope,—embracing not merely the -characteristics and conditions of the beings which now exist, but of -all, so far as we can learn regarding them, which have ever existed, -and involving the consideration of not merely their peculiarities as -races placed before us without relation to time, but also of the history -of their rise, increase, decline, and extinction. In studying the -_biography_, if I may so express myself, of an individual animal, we -have to acquaint ourselves with the circumstances in which nature has -placed it,—its adaptation to these, both in structure and instinct,—the -points of resemblance which it presents to the individuals of other races -and families, and the laws which determine its terms of development, -vigorous existence, and decay. And all Natural History, when restricted -to the passing _now_ of the world’s annals, is simply a congeries of -biographies. It is when we extend our view into the geological field that -it passes from _biography_ into _history proper_, and that we have to -rise from the consideration of the birth and death of individuals, which, -in all mere biographies, form the great terminal events that constitute -beginning and end, to a survey of the birth and death of races, and the -elevation or degradation of dynasties and sub-kingdoms. - -We learn from human history that nations are as certainly mortal as men. -They enjoy a greatly longer term of existence, but they die at last: -Rollin’s History of Ancient Nations is a history of the dead. And we -are taught by geological history, in like manner, that _species_ are as -mortal as individuals and nations, and that even genera and families -become extinct. There is no _man_ upon earth at the present moment whose -age greatly exceeds an hundred years;—there is no _nation_ now upon -earth (if we perhaps except the long-lived Chinese) that also flourished -three thousand years ago;—there is no _species_ now living upon earth -that dates beyond the times of the Tertiary deposits. All bear the stamp -of death,—individuals,—nations,—species; and we may scarce less safely -predicate, looking upon the past, that it is appointed for nations and -species to die, than that it “is appointed for _man_ once to die.” Even -our own species, _as now constituted_,—with instincts that conform to the -original injunction, “increase and multiply,” and that, in consequence, -“marry and are given in marriage,”—shall one day cease to exist: a fact -not less in accordance with beliefs inseparable from the faith of the -Christian, than with the widely-founded experience of the geologist. Now, -it is scarce possible for the human mind to become acquainted with the -fact, that at certain periods species began to exist and then, after the -lapse of untold ages, ceased to be, without inquiring whether, from the -“conditions of existence, commonly termed final causes,” we cannot deduce -a reason for their rise or decline, or why their term of being should -have been included rather in one certain period of time than another. -The same faculty which finds employment in tracing to their causes the -rise and fall of nations, and which it is the merit of the philosophic -historian judiciously to exercise, will to a certainty seek employment -in this department of history also; and that there will be an appetency -for such speculations in the public mind, we may infer from the success, -as a literary undertaking, of the “Vestiges of Creation,”—a work that -bears the same sort of relation, in this special field to sober inquiry, -founded on the true conditions of things, that the legends of the old -chroniclers bore to authentic history. The progressive state of geologic -science has hitherto militated against the formation of theory of the -soberer character. Its facts—still merely in the forming—are necessarily -imperfect in their classification, and limited in their amount; and -thus the essential data continues incomplete. Besides, the men best -acquainted with the basis of fact which already exists, have quite enough -to engage them in adding to it. But there are limits to the field of -palæontological discovery, in its relation to what may be termed the -chronology of organized existence, which, judging from the progress of -the science in the past, may be well nigh reached in favored localities, -such as the British islands, in about a quarter of a century from the -present time; and then, I doubt not, geological history, in legitimate -conformity with the laws of mind, and from the existence of the pregnant -principle peculiar, according to Cuvier, to that science of which Geology -is simply an extension, will assume a very extraordinary form. We cannot -yet aspire “to the height of this great argument:” our foundations are -in parts still unconsolidated and incomplete, and unfitted to sustain the -perfect superstructure which shall one day assuredly rise upon them; but -from the little which we can now see, “as if in a glass darkly,” enough -appears from which to - - “Assert eternal Providence, - And justify the ways of God to men.” - -The history of the four great monarchies of the world was typified, in -the prophetic dream of the ancient Babylonish king, by a colossal image, -“terrible in its form and brightness,” of which the “head was pure gold,” -the “breast and arms of silver,” the “belly and thighs of brass,” and the -legs and feet “of iron, and of iron mingled with clay.” The vision in -which it formed the central object was appropriately that of a puissant -monarch; and the image itself typified the merely human monarchies of the -earth. It would require a widely different figure to symbolize the great -monarchies of creation. And yet Revelation does furnish such a figure. -It is that which was witnessed by the captive prophet beside “the river -Chebar,” when “the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God.” In -that chariot of Deity, glowing in fire and amber, with its complex wheels -“so high that they were dreadful,” set round about with eyes, there were -living creatures, of whose four faces three were brute and one human; and -high over all sat the Son of Man. It would almost seem as if, in this -sublime vision,—in which, with features distinct enough to impress the -imagination, there mingle the elements of an awful incomprehensibility, -and which even the genius of Raffaelle has failed adequately to -portray,—the history of all the past and of all the future had been -symbolized. In the order of Providence intimated in the geologic record, -the brute faces, as in the vision, outnumber the human;—the human -dynasty is one, and the dynasties of the inferior animals are three; and -yet who can doubt that they all equally compose parts of a well-ordered -and perfect whole, as the four faces formed but one cherubim; that -they have been moving onward to a definite goal, in the unity of one -grand harmonious design,—now “lifted up high” over the comprehension of -earth,—now let down to its humble level; and that the Creator of all has -been ever seated over them on the throne of his providence,—a “likeness -in the appearance of a man,”—embodying the perfection of his nature in -his workings, and determining the end from the beginning? - -There is geologic evidence, as has been shown, that in the course of -creation the higher orders succeeded the lower. We have no good reason to -believe that the mollusc and crustacean preceded the fish, seeing that -discovery, in its slow course, has already traced the vertebrata in the -ichthyic form, down to deposits which only a few years ago were regarded -as representatives of the first beginnings of organized existence on our -planet, and that it has at the same time failed to add a lower system -to that in which their remains occur. But the fish seems most certainly -to have preceded the reptile and the bird; the reptile and the bird to -have preceded the mammiferous quadruped; and the mammiferous quadruped -to have preceded man,—rational, accountable man, whom God created in -his own image,—the much-loved Benjamin of the family,—last-born of all -creatures. It is of itself an extraordinary fact, without reference to -other considerations, that the order adopted by Cuvier, in his animal -kingdom, as that in which the four great classes of vertebrate animals, -when marshalled according to their rank and standing, naturally range -should be also that in which they occur in order of time. The brain -which bears an average proportion to the spinal cord of not more than -two to one, came first,—it is the brain of the fish; that which bears to -the spinal cord an average proportion of two and a half to one succeeded -it,—it is the brain of the reptile; then came the brain averaging as -three to one,—it is that of the bird; next in succession came the brain -that averages as four to one,—it is that of the mammal; and last of all -there appeared a brain that averages as _twenty-three_ to one,—reasoning, -calculating man had come upon the scene. All the facts of geological -science are hostile to the Lamarckian conclusion, that the lower brains -were developed into the higher. As if with the express intention of -preventing so gross a mis-reading of the record, we find, in at least two -classes of animals,—fishes and reptiles,—the higher races placed at the -beginning: the slope of the inclined plane is laid, if one may so speak, -in the reverse way, and, instead of rising towards the level of the -succeeding class, inclines downwards, with at least the effect, if not -the design, of making the break where they meet exceedingly well marked -and conspicuous. And yet the record does seem to speak of _development -and progression_;—not, however, in the province of organized existence, -but in that of insensate matter, subject to the purely chemical laws. -It is in the style and character of _the dwelling-place_ that gradual -improvement seems to have taken place;—not in the functions or the rank -of any class of its inhabitants; and it is with special reference to this -gradual improvement in our common mansion-house the earth, in its bearing -on the “conditions of existence,” that not a few of our reasonings -regarding the introduction and extinction of species and genera must -proceed. - -That definite period at which man was introduced upon the scene seems -to have been specially determined by the conditions of correspondence -which the phenomena of his habitation had at length come to assume with -the predestined constitution of his mind. The large reasoning brain would -have been wholly out of place in the earlier ages. It is indubitably the -nature of man to base the conclusions which regulate all his actions -on fixed phenomena,—he reasons from cause to effect, or from effect to -cause; and when placed in circumstances in which, from some lack of the -necessary basis, he cannot so reason, he becomes a wretched, timid, -superstitious creature, greatly more helpless and abject than even the -inferior animals. This unhappy state is strikingly exemplified by that -deep and peculiar impression made on the mind by a severe earthquake, -which Humboldt, from his own experience, so powerfully describes. -“This impression,” he says, “is not, in my opinion, the result of a -recollection of those fearful pictures of devastation presented to our -imagination by the historical narratives of the past, but is rather due -to the sudden revelation of the delusive nature of the inherent faith -by which we had clung to a belief in the immobility of the solid parts -of the earth. We are accustomed from early childhood to draw a contrast -between the mobility of water and the immobility of the soil on which we -tread; and this feeling is confirmed by the evidence of our senses. When, -therefore, we suddenly feel the ground move beneath us, a mysterious -force, with which we were previously unacquainted, is revealed to us as -an active disturber of stability. A moment destroys the illusion of a -whole life; our deceptive faith in the repose of nature vanishes; and -we feel transported into a realm of unknown destructive forces. Every -sound—the faintest motion of the air—arrests our attention, and we no -longer trust the ground on which we stand. There is an idea conveyed -to the mind, of some universal and unlimited danger. We may flee from -the crater of a volcano in active eruption, or from the dwelling whose -destruction is threatened by the approach of the lava stream; but in an -earthquake, direct our flight whithersoever we will, we still feel as -if we trod upon the very focus of destruction.” Not less striking is -the testimony of Dr. Tschudi, in his “Travels in Peru,” regarding this -singular effect of earthquakes on the human mind. “No familiarity with -the phenomenon can,” he remarks, “blunt the feeling. The inhabitant of -Lima, who from childhood has frequently witnessed these convulsions -of nature, is roused from his sleep by the shock, and rushes from his -apartment with the cry of ‘_Misericordia_!’ The foreigner from the -north of Europe, who knows nothing of earthquakes but by description, -waits with impatience to feel the movements of the earth, and longs to -hear with his own ear the subterranean sounds, which he has hitherto -considered fabulous. With levity he treats the apprehension of a coming -convulsion, and laughs at the fears of the natives; but as soon as his -wish is gratified, he is terror-stricken, and is involuntarily prompted -to seek safety in flight.” - -Now, a partially consolidated planet, tempested by frequent earthquakes -of such terrible potency, that those of the historic ages would be but -mere ripples of the earth’s surface in comparison, could be no proper -home for a creature so constituted. The fish or reptile,—animals of a -limited range of instinct, exceedingly tenacious of life in most of their -varieties, oviparous, prolific, and whose young immediately on their -escape from the egg can provide for themselves, might enjoy existence in -such circumstances, to the full extent of their narrow capacities; and -when sudden death fell upon them,—though their remains, scattered over -wide areas, continue to exhibit that distortion of posture incident to -violent dissolution, which seems to speak of terror and suffering,—we may -safely conclude there was but little real suffering on the case: they -were happy up to a certain point, and unconscious forever after. Fishes -and reptiles were the proper inhabitants of our planet during the ages of -the earth-tempests; and when, under the operation of the chemical laws, -these had become less frequent and terrible, the higher mammals were -introduced. That prolonged ages of these tempests did exist, and that -they gradually settled down, until the state of things became at length -comparatively fixed and stable, few geologists will be disposed to deny. -The evidence which supports _this_ special theory of the development -of our planet in its capabilities as a scene of organized and sentient -being, seems palpable at every step. Look first at these Grauwacke rocks; -and, after marking how in one place the strata have been upturned on -their edges for miles together, and how in another the Plutonic rock has -risen molten from below, pass on to the Old Red Sandstone, and examine -its significant platforms of violent death,—its faults, displacements, -and dislocations; see, next, in the Coal Measures, those evidences of -sinking and ever-sinking strata, for thousands of feet together; mark in -the Oolite those vast overlying masses of trap, stretching athwart the -landscape, far as the eye can reach; observe carefully how the signs of -convulsion and catastrophe gradually lessen as we descend to the times of -the Tertiary, though even in these ages of the mammiferous quadruped the -earth must have had its oft-recurring ague fits of frightful intensity; -and then, on closing the survey, consider how exceedingly partial and -unfrequent these earth-tempests have become in the recent periods. Yes; -we find every where marks of at once progression and identity,—of -progress made, and yet identity maintained; but it is in the habitation -that we find them,—not in the inhabitants. There is a tract of country in -Hindustan that contains nearly as many square miles as all Great Britain, -covered to the depth of hundreds of feet by one vast overflow of trap; -a track similarly overflown, which exceeds in area all England, occurs -in Southern Africa. The earth’s surface is roughened with such,—mottled -as thickly by the Plutonic masses as the skin of the leopard by its -spots. The trap district which surrounds our Scottish metropolis, and -imparts so imposing a character to its scenery, is too inconsiderable to -be marked on geological maps of the world, that we yet see streaked and -speckled with similar memorials, though on an immensely vaster scale, -of the eruption and overflow which took place in the earthquake ages. -What could man have done on the globe at a time when such outbursts -were comparatively common occurrences? What could he have done where -Edinburgh now stands during that overflow of trap porphyry of which the -Pentland range forms but a fragment, or that outburst of greenstone of -which but a portion remains in the dark ponderous coping of Salisbury -Craigs, or when the thick floor of rock on which the city stands was -broken up, like the ice of an arctic sea during a tempest in spring, and -laid on edge from where it leans against the Castle Hill to beyond the -quarries at Joppa? The reasoning brain would have been wholly at fault -in a scene of things in which it could neither foresee the exterminating -calamity while yet distant, nor control it when it had come; and so the -reasoning brain was not produced until the scene had undergone a slow -but thorough process of change, during which, at each progressive stage, -it had furnished a platform for higher and still higher life. When the -coniferæ could flourish on the land, and fishes subsist in the seas, -fishes and cone-bearing plants were created; when the earth became a -fit habitat for reptiles and birds, reptiles and birds were produced; -with the dawn of a more stable and mature state of things the sagacious -quadruped was ushered in; and, last of all, when man’s house was fully -prepared for him,—when the data on which it is his nature to reason -and calculate had become fixed and certain,—the reasoning, calculating -brain was moulded by the creative finger, and man became a living soul. -Such seems to be the true reading of the wondrous inscription chiselled -deep in the rocks. It furnishes us with no clue by which to unravel the -unapproachable mysteries of creation;—these mysteries belong to the -wondrous Creator, and to Him only. We attempt to theorize upon them, -and to reduce them to law, and all nature rises up against us in our -presumptuous rebellion. A stray splinter of cone-bearing wood,—a fish’s -skull or tooth,—the vertebra of a reptile,—the humerus of a bird,—the jaw -of a quadruped,—all, any of these things, weak and insignificant as they -may seem, become in such a quarrel too strong for us and our theory: the -puny fragment, in the grasp of truth, forms as irresistible a weapon as -the dry bone did in that of Samson of old; and our slaughtered sophisms -lie piled up, “heaps upon heaps,” before it. - -There is no geological fact nor revealed doctrine with which this special -scheme of development does not agree. To every truth, too, really such, -from which the antagonist scheme derives its shadowy analogies, it leaves -its full value. It has no quarrel with the facts of even the “Vestiges,” -in their character as realities. There is certainly something very -extraordinary in that fœtal progress of the human brain on which the -assertors of the development hypothesis have founded so much. Nature, in -constructing this curious organ, first lays down a grooved cord, as the -carpenter lays down the keel of his vessel; and on this narrow base the -perfect brain, as month after month passes by, is gradually built up, -like the vessel from the keel. First it grows up into a brain closely -resembling that of a fish; a few additions more convert it into a brain -undistinguishable from that of a reptile; a few additions more impart -to it the perfect appearance of the brain of a bird; it then developes -into a brain exceedingly like that of a mammiferous quadruped; and, -finally, expanding atop, and spreading out its deeply corrugated lobes, -till they project widely over the base, it assumes its unique character -as a human brain. Radically such from the first, it passes towards its -full development, through all the inferior forms, from that of the fish -upwards,—thus comprising, during its fœtal progress, an epitome of -geologic history, as if each man were in himself, not the _microcosm_ of -the old fanciful philosopher, but something greatly more wonderful,—a -compendium of all animated nature, and of kin to every creature that -lives. Hence the remark, that man is the sum total of all animals,—“the -animal equivalent,” says Oken, “to the whole animal kingdom.” We are -perhaps too much in the habit of setting aside real facts, when they -have been first seized upon by the infidel, and appropriated to the -purposes of unbelief, as if they had suffered contamination in his -hands. We forget, like the brother “weak in the faith,” instanced by -the Apostle, that they are in themselves “creatures of God;” and too -readily reject the lesson which they teach, simply because they have been -offered in sacrifice to an idol. And this strange fact of the progress -of the human brain is assuredly a fact none the less worth looking at -from the circumstance that infidelity has looked at it first. On no -principle recognizable in right reason can it be urged in support of the -development hypothesis;—it is a fact of _fœtal_ development, and of that -only. But it would be well should it lead our metaphysicians to inquire -whether they have not been rendering their science too insulated and -exclusive; and whether the mind that works by a brain thus “fearfully and -wonderfully made,” ought not to be viewed rather in connection with all -animated nature, especially as we find nature exemplified in the various -vertebral forms, than as a thing fundamentally abstract and distinct. -The brain built up of all the types of _brain_, may be the organ of a -mind compounded, if I may so express myself, of all the varieties of -_mind_. It would be perhaps over fanciful to urge that it is the creature -who has made himself free of all the elements, whose brain has been -thus in succession that of all their proper denizens; and that there -is no animal instinct, the function of which cannot be illustrated by -some art mastered by man: but there can be nothing over fanciful in the -suggestion, founded on this fact of fœtal development, that possibly some -of the more obscure signs impressed upon the human character may be best -read through the spectacles of physical science. The successive phases of -the fœtal brain give at least fair warning that, in tracing to its first -principles the moral and intellectual nature of man, what is properly -his “natural history” should not be overlooked. Oken, after describing -the human creature in one passage as “equivalent to the whole animal -kingdom,” designates him in another as “God wholly manifested,” and as -“God become man;”—a style of expression at which the English reader -may start, as that of the “big mouth speaking blasphemy,” but which -has become exceedingly common among the nationalists of the Continent. -The irreverent naturalist ought surely to have remembered, that the -sum total of all the animals cannot be different in its nature from the -various sums of which it is an aggregate,—seeing that _no_ summation ever -differs in _quality_ from the items summed up, which compose it,—and -that, though it may amount in this case to man _the animal_,—to man, -as he may be weighed, and measured, and subjected to the dissecting -knife,—it cannot possibly amount to God. Is God merely a sum total of -birds and beasts, reptiles and fishes;—a mere Egyptian deity, composed -of fantastic hieroglyphics derived from the forms of the brute creation? -The impieties of the transcendentalist may, however, serve to illustrate -that mode of seizing on terms which, as the most sacred in the message -of revelation, have been long coupled in the popular mind with saving -truths, and forcibly compelling them to bear some visionary and illusive -meaning, wholly foreign to that with which they were originally invested, -which has become so remarkable a part of the policy of modern infidelity. -Rationalism has learned to sacrifice to Deity with a certain measure of -conformity to the required pattern; but it is a conformity in appearance -only, not in reality: the sacrifice always resembles that of Prometheus -of old, who presented to Jupiter what, though it seemed to be an ox -without blemish, was merely an ox-skin stuffed full of bones and garbage. - -There is another very remarkable class of facts in geological history, -which appear to fall as legitimately within the scope of argument founded -on final causes, as those which bear on the appearance of man at his -proper era. The period of the mammiferous quadrupeds seems, like the -succeeding human period, to have been determined, as I have said, by the -earth’s fitness at the time as a place of habitation for creatures so -formed. And the bulk to which, in the more extreme cases, they attained, -appears to have been regulated, as in the higher mammals now, with -reference to the force of gravity at the earth’s surface. The Megatherium -and the Mastodon, the Dinotherium and the extinct elephant, increased -in bulk, in obedience to the laws of the specific constitution imparted -to them at their creation; and these laws bore reference, in turn, to -another law,—that law of gravity which determines that no creature which -moves in air and treads the surface of the earth should exceed a certain -weight or size. To very near the limits assigned by this law some of the -ancient quadrupeds arose. It is even doubtful whether the Dinotherium, -the most gigantic of mammals, may not have been, like the existing -sea-lions and morses, mainly an aquatic quadruped;—an inference grounded -on the circumstance that, in at least portions of its framework, it seems -to have risen beyond these limits. Now, it does not seem wonderful that, -with apparent reference to the point at which the gravity of bodies -at the earth’s surface _bisects_ the conditions of texture and matter -necessary to existence among the sub-aerial vertebrata, the _reptiles_ -of the Secondary periods should have grown up in some of their species -and genera to the extreme size. A world of frogs, newts, and lizards -would have borne stamped upon it the impress of a tame and miserable -mediocrity, that would have harmonized ill with the extent of the -earth’s capabilities for supporting life on a large scale. There would -be no principle of adaptation or rule of proportion maintained between -an animal kingdom composed of so contemptible a group of beings, and -either the dynamic laws under which matter exists on our planet, or the -luxuriant vegetation which it bore during the Secondary ages. And such -was not the character of the group which composed the reptile dynasty. -The Iguanodon must have been quite as tall as the elephant,—greatly -longer, and, it would seem, at least as bulky. The Megalosaurus must have -at least equalled the rhinoceros; the Hylæosaurus would have outweighed -the hippopotamus. And when reptiles that rivalled in size our hugest -mammals inhabited the land, other reptiles,—Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, -and Cetiosaurs,—scarce less bulky than the cetacea themselves, possessed -the sea. Not only was the platform of being occupied in all its -_breadth_, but also in all its _height_; and it is according to our -simpler and more obvious ideas of adaptation—simple and obvious because -gleaned from the very surface of the universe of life—that such should -have been the case. But it does appear strange, because under the -regulation, it would seem, of a principle of adaptation more occult, -and, if I may so speak, more _Providential_, that no sooner are the huge -mammals introduced _as a group_, than, with but a few exceptions, the -reptiles appear in greatly diminished proportions. They no longer occupy -the platform to its full extent of _height_. Even in tropical countries, -in which certain families of mammals still attain to the maximum size, -the reptiles, if we except the crocodilean family, a few harmless -turtles, and the degraded boas and pythons, are a small and comparatively -unimportant race. Nay, the existing giants of the class—the crocodiles -and boas—hardly equal in bulk the third-rate reptiles of the ages of -the Oolite and the Wealden. So far as can be seen, there is no reason -deduceable from the nature of things, why the country that sustains a -mammal bulky as the elephant, should not also support a reptile huge -as the Iguanodon; or why the Megalosaurus, Hylæosaurus, and Dicynodon, -might not have been contemporary with the lion, tiger, and rhinoceros. -The change which took place in the reptile group immediately on their -dethronement at the close of the Secondary period, seems scarce less -strange than that sung by Milton:— - - “Behold a wonder! They but now who seemed - In bigness to surpass earth’s giant sons, - Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room - Thronged numberless; like that pygmean race - Beyond the Indian mount; or fairy elves, - Whose midnight revels, by a forest side - Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, - Or dreams he sees, while, overhead, the moon - Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth - Wheels her pale course.” - -But though we cannot assign a _cause_ for this general reduction of the -reptile class, save simply the will of the all-wise Creator, the _reason_ -why it should have taken place seems easily assignable. It was a bold -saying of the old philosophic heathen, that “God is the soul of brutes;” -but writers on instinct in even our own times have said less warrantable -things. God _does_ seem to do for many of the inferior animals of the -lower divisions, which, though devoid of brain and vertebral column, are -yet skilful chemists and accomplished architects and mathematicians, -what he enables man, through the exercise of the reasoning faculty, -to do for himself; and the ancient philosopher meant no more. And in -clearing away the giants of the reptile dynasty, when their kingdom had -passed away, and then re-introducing the class as much shrunken in their -proportions as restricted in their domains, the Creator seems to have -been doing for the mammals what man, in the character of a “mighty hunter -before the Lord,” does for himself. There is in nature very little of -what can be called war. The cities of this country cannot be said to be -in a state of war, though their cattle-markets are thronged every week -with animals for slaughter and the butcher and fishmonger find their -places of business thronged with customers. And such, in the main, is the -condition of the animal world;—it consists of its two classes,—animals -of prey, and the animals upon which they prey: its wars are simply those -of the butcher and fisher, lightened by a dash of the enjoyments of the -sportsman. - - “The creatures see of flood and field, - And those that travel on the wind, - With them no strife can last; they live - In peace and peace of mind.” - -Generally speaking, the carnivorous mammalia respect one another: lion -does not war with tiger, nor the leopard contend with the hyena. But -the carnivorous reptiles manifest no such respect for the carnivorous -mammals. There are fierce contests in their native jungles, on the banks -of the Ganges, between the gavial and the tiger; and in the steaming -forests of South America, the boa-constrictor casts his terrible coil -scarce less readily round the puma than the antelope. A world which, -after it had become a home of the higher herbivorous and more powerful -carnivorous mammals, continued to retain the gigantic reptiles of -its earlier ages, would be a world of horrid, exterminating war, and -altogether rather a place of torment than a scene of intermediate -character, in which, though it sometimes reëchoes the groans of -suffering nature, life is, in the main, enjoyment. And so,—save in a few -exceptional cases, that, while they establish the rule as a fact, serve -also as a key to unlock that principle of the Divine government on which -it appears to rest,—no sooner was the reptile removed from his place in -the fore-front of creation, and creatures of a higher order introduced -into it the consolidating and fast-ripening planet of which he had been -so long the monarch, than his bulk shrank and his strength lessened, -and he assumed a humility of form and aspect at once in keeping with -his reduced circumstances, and compatible with the general welfare. But -though the _reason_ of the reduction appears obvious, I know not that it -can be referred to any other _cause_ than simply the will of the All-Wise -Creator. - -There hangs a mystery greatly more profound over the fact of the -_degradation_ than over that of the _reduction_ and _diminution_ of -classes. We can assign what at least _seems_ to be a sufficient _reason_ -why, when reptiles formed as a class the highest representatives of the -vertebrata, they should be of imposing bulk and strength, and altogether -worthy of that post of precedence which they then occupied among the -animals. We can also assign a _reason_ for the strange reduction which -took place among them in strength and bulk immediately on their removal -from the first to the second place. But why not only _reduction_, -but also _degradation_? Why, as division started up in advance of -division,—first the reptiles in front of the fishes, then the quadrupedal -mammals in front of the reptiles, and, last of all, man in front of -the quadrupedal mammals,—should the supplanted classes,—two of them at -least,—fishes and reptiles,—for there seem to have been no additions -made to the mammals since man entered upon the scene,—why should they -have become the receptacles of orders and families of a degraded -character, which had no place among them in their monarchical state? The -fishes removed beyond all analogy with the higher vertebrata, by their -homocercal tails,—the fishes (_Acanthopterygii_ and _Sub-brachiati_) with -their four limbs slung in a belt round their necks,—the flat fishes, -(_Pleuronectidæ_,) that, in addition to this deformity, are so twisted -to a side, that while the one eye occupies a single orbit in the -middle of the skull, the other is thrust out to its edge,—the irregular -fishes generally (sun-fishes, frog-fishes, hippocampi, &c.) were not -introduced into the ichthyic division until after the full development -of the reptile dynasty; nor did the hand that makes no slips in its -working “form the crooked serpent,” footless, grovelling, venom-bearing, -the authorized type of a fallen and degraded creature, until after the -introduction of the mammals. What can this fact of degradation mean? -Species and genera seem to be greatly more numerous in the present age -of the world than in any of the geologic ages. Is it not possible that -the extension of the chain of being which has thus taken place—not only, -as we find, through the addition of the higher divisions of animals to -its upper end, but also through the interpolations of _lower links_ -into the previously existing divisions—may have borne reference to some -predetermined scheme of well-proportioned gradation, or, according to the -poet, - - “Of general ORDER since the whole began?” - -May not, in short, what we term degradation be merely one of the modes -resorted to for filling up the voids in creation, and thereby perfecting -a scale which must have been originally not merely a scale of narrow -compass, but also of innumerable breaks and blanks, hiatuses and chasms? -Such, certainly, would be the reading of the enigma which a Soame Jenyns -or a Bolingbroke would suggest; but the geologist has learned from his -science, that the completion of a chain of at least contemporary being, -perfect in its gradations, cannot possibly have formed the design of -Providence. Almost ever since God united vitality to matter, the links in -this chain of animated nature, as if composed of a material too brittle -to bear their own weight when stretched across the geologic ages, have -been dropping one after out, from his hand, and sinking, fractured and -broken, into the rocks below. It is urged by Pope, that were “we to press -on superior powers,” and rise from our own assigned place to the place -immediately above all, we would, in consequence of the transposition, - - “In the full creation leave a void, - Where, one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed. - From nature’s chain whatever link we strike, - Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.” - -The poet could scarce have anticipated that there was a science then -sleeping in its cradle, and dreaming the dreams of Whiston, Leibnitz, and -Burnet, which was one day to rise and demonstrate that both the tenth and -the ten thousandth link in the chain had been already broken and laid -by, with all the thousands of links between; and that man might laudably -“press on superior powers,” and attain to a “new nature,” without in the -least affecting the symmetry of creation by the void which his elevation -would necessarily create; that, in fine, voids and blanks in the scale -are exceedingly common things; and that, if men could, by rising into -angels, make one blank more, they might do so with perfect impunity. -Further, even were the graduated chain of Bolingbroke a reality, and not -what Johnson well designates it, an “absurd hypothesis,” and were what I -have termed the interpolation of links necessary to its completion, the -mere filling up of the original blanks and chasms would not necessarily -involve the fact of degradation, seeing that each blank could be -filled up, if I may go express myself, from its lower end. Each could -be as certainly occupied to the full by an elevation of lower forms, -as by a humiliation of the higher. We might receive the hypothesis of -Bolingbroke, and yet find the mysterious fact of degradation remain an -unsolved riddle in our hands. - -But though I can assign neither _reason_ nor _cause_ for the fact, I -cannot avoid the conclusion, that it is associated with certain other -great facts in the moral government of the universe, by those threads of -analogical connection which run through the entire tissue of Creation and -Providence, and impart to it that character of unity which speaks of the -single producing Mind. The first idea of every religion on earth which -has arisen out of what may be termed the spiritual instincts of man’s -nature, is that of a Future State; the second idea is, that in this state -men shall exist in two separate classes,—the one in advance of their -present condition, the other far in the rear of it. It is on these two -great beliefs that conscience every where finds the fulcrum from which -it acts upon the conduct; and it is, we find, wholly inoperative as a -force without them. And in that one religion among men that, instead -of retiring, like the pale ghosts of the others, before the light of -civilization, brightens and expands in its beams, and in favor of whose -claim as a revelation from God the highest philosophy has declared, -we find these two master ideas occupying a still more prominent place -than in any of those merely indigenous religions that spring up in the -human mind of themselves. The special lesson which the Adorable Saviour, -during his ministry on earth, oftenest enforced, and to which all the -others bore reference, was the lesson of a final separation of mankind -into two great divisions,—a division of God-like men, of whose high -Standing and full-orbed happiness man, in the present scene of things, -can form no adequate conception; and a division of men finally lost, and -doomed to unutterable misery and hopeless degradation. There is not in -all Revelation a single doctrine which we find oftener or more clearly -enforced than that there shall continue to exist, throughout the endless -cycles of the future, a race of degraded men and of degraded angels. - -Now, it is truly wonderful how thoroughly, in its general scope, the -revealed pieces on to the geologic record. We know, as geologists, that -the dynasty of the fish was succeeded by that of the reptile,—that -the dynasty of the reptile was succeeded by that of the mammiferous -quadruped,—and that the dynasty of the mammiferous quadruped was -succeeded by that of man as man now exists,—a creature of mixed -character, and subject, in all conditions, to wide alternations of -enjoyment and suffering. We know, further—so far at least as we have -yet succeeded in deciphering the record,—that the several dynasties -were introduced, not in their lower, but in their higher forms;—that, -in short, in the imposing programme of creation it was arranged, as a -general rule, that in each of the great divisions of the procession -the magnates should walk first. We recognize yet further the fact of -degradation specially exemplified in the fish and the reptile. And then, -passing on to the revealed record, we learn that the dynasty of man in -the mixed state and character is not the final one, but that there is -to be yet another creation, or, more properly, _re_-creation, known -theologically as the Resurrection, which shall be connected in its -physical components, by bonds of mysterious paternity, with the dynasty -which now reigns, and be bound to it mentally by the chain of identity, -conscious and actual; but which, in all that constitutes superiority, -shall be as vastly its superior as the dynasty of responsible man is -superior to even the lowest of the preliminary dynasties. We are further -taught, that at the commencement of this last of the dynasties, there -will be a re-creation of not only elevated, but also of degraded -beings,—a re-creation of the _lost_. We are taught yet further, that -though the present dynasty be that of a lapsed race, which at their -first introduction were placed on higher ground than that on which they -now stand, and sank by their own act, it was yet part of the original -design, from the beginning of all things, that they should occupy -the existing platform; and that Redemption is thus no after-thought, -rendered necessary by the fall, but, on the contrary, part of a general -scheme, for which provision had been made from the beginning; so that -the Divine Man, through whom the work of restoration has been effected, -was in reality, in reference to the purposes of the Eternal, what he is -designated in the remarkable text, “_the Lamb slain from the foundations -of the world_.” Slain from the foundations of the world! Could the -assertors of the stony science ask for language more express? By piecing -the two records together,—that revealed in Scripture and that revealed -in the rocks,—records which, however widely geologists may mistake the -one, or commentators misunderstand the other, have emanated from the -same great Author—we learn that in slow and solemn majesty has period -succeeded period, each in succession ushering in a higher end yet higher -scene of existence,—that fish, reptiles, mammiferous quadrupeds, have -reigned in turn,—that responsible man, “made in the image of God,” -and with dominion over all creatures, ultimately entered into a world -ripened for his reception; but, further, that this passing scene, in -which he forms the prominent figure, is not the final one in the long -series, but merely the last of the _preliminary_ scenes; and that that -period to which the bygone ages, incalculable in amount, with all their -well-proportioned gradations of being, form the imposing vestibule, shall -have perfection for its occupant, and eternity for its duration. I know -not how it may appear to others; but for my own part, I cannot avoid -thinking that there would be a lack of proportion in the series of being, -were the period of perfect and glorified humanity abruptly connected, -without the introduction of an intermediate creation of _responsible_ -imperfection, with that of the dying irresponsible brute. That scene of -things in which God became Man, and suffered, _seems_, as it no doubt -_is_, a necessary link in the chain. - -I am aware that I stand on the confines of a mystery which man, since the -first introduction of sin into the world till now, has “vainly aspired to -comprehend.” But I have no new reading of the enigma to offer. I know not -why it is that moral evil exists in the universe of the All-Wise and the -All-Powerful; nor through what occult law of Deity it is that “perfection -should come through suffering.” The question, like that satellite, ever -attendant upon our planet, which presents both its sides to the sun, but -invariably the same side to the earth, hides one of its faces from man, -and turns it to but the Eye from which all light emanates. And it is in -that God-ward phase of the question that the mystery dwells. We can map -and measure every protuberance and hollow which roughens the nether disk -of the moon, as, during the shades of night, it looks down upon our path -to cheer and enlighten; but what can we know of the other? It would, -however, seem, that even in this field of mystery the extent of the -inexplicable and the unknown is capable of reduction, and that the human -understanding is vested in an ability of progressing towards the central -point of that dark field throughout all time, mayhap all eternity, as -the asymptote progresses upon its curve. Even though the essence of the -question should forever remain a mystery, it may yet in its reduced and -defined state, serve as a key for the laying of other mysteries open. -The philosophers are still as ignorant as ever respecting the intrinsic -nature of gravitation; but regarded simply as a force, how many enigmas -has it not served to unlock! And that moral gravitation towards evil, -manifested by the only two classes of responsible beings of which there -is aught known to man, and of which a degradation linked by mysterious -analogy with a class of facts singularly prominent in geologic history is -the result, occupies apparently a similar place, as a force, in the moral -dynamics of the universe, and seems suited to perform a similar part. -Inexplicable itself, it is yet a key to the solution of all the minor -inexplicabilities in the scheme of Providence. - -In a matter of such extreme niceness and difficulty, shall I dare venture -on an illustrative example? - -So far as both the geologic and the Scriptural evidence extends, no -species or family of existences seems to have been introduced by creation -into the present scene of being since the appearance of man. In Scripture -the formation of the human race is described as the terminal act of a -series, “good” in all its previous stages, but which became “very good” -then; and geologists, judging from the modicum of evidence which they -have hitherto succeeded in collecting on the subject,—evidence still -meagre, but, so far as it goes, independent and distinct,—pronounce -“post-Adamic creations” at least “improbable.” The naturalist finds -certain animal and vegetable species restricted to certain circles, -and that in certain foci in these circles they attain to their fullest -development and their maximum number. And these foci he regards as the -original centres of creation, whence, in each instance in the process -of increase and multiplication, the plant or creature propagated itself -outwards in circular wavelets of life, that sank at each stage as they -widened till at length, at the circumference of the area, they wholly -ceased. Now we find it argued by Professor Edward Forbes that “since -man’s appearance, certain geological areas, both of land and water, -have been formed, presenting such physical conditions as to entitle us -to expect within their bounds one, or in some instances more than one, -centre of creation, or _point of maximum of a zoological or botanical -province_. But a critical examination renders evident,” the Professor -adds, “that instead of showing distinct foci of creation, they have -been in all instances peopled by colonization, _i. e._ by migration of -species from pre-existing, and in every case pre-Adamic, provinces. Among -the terrestrial areas the British isles may serve as an example; among -marine, the Baltic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas. The British islands -have been colonized from various centres of creation in (now) continental -Europe; the Baltic Sea from the Celtic region, although it runs itself -into the conditions of the Boreal one; and the Mediterranean, as it -now appears, from the fauna and flora of the more ancient Lusitanian -province.” Professor Forbes, it is stated further, in the report of his -paper to which I owe these details,—a paper read at the Royal Institution -in March last,—“exhibited, in support of the same view, a map, showing -the relation which the centres of creation of the air-breathing molluscs -in Europe bear to the geological history of the respective areas, and -proving that the whole snail population of its northern and central -extent (the portion of the Continent of newest and probably post-Adamic -origin) had been derived from foci of creation seated in pre-Adamic -lands. And these remarkable facts have induced the Professor,” it was -added, “to maintain the improbability of post-Adamic creations.” - -With the introduction of man into the scene of existence, creation, -I repeat, seems to have ceased. What is it that now takes its place, -and performs its work? During the previous dynasties, all elevation -in the scale was an effect simply of creation. Nature lay dead in a -waste theatre of rock, vapor, and sea, in which the insensate laws, -chemical; mechanical, and electric, carried on their blind, unintelligent -processes: the _creative fiat_ went forth; and, amid waters that -straightway teemed with life in its lower forms, vegetable and animal, -the dynasty of the fish was introduced. Many ages passed, during which -there took place no further elevation: on the contrary, in not a few of -the newly introduced species of the reigning class there occurred for -the first time examples of an asymmetrical misplacement of parts, and, -in at least one family of fishes, instances of defect of parts: there -was the manifestation of a downward tendency towards the degradation of -monstrosity, when the elevatory fiat again went forth, and, _through -an act of creation_, the dynasty of the reptile began. Again many ages -passed by, marked, apparently, by the introduction of a warm-blooded -oviparous animal, the bird, and of a few marsupial quadrupeds, but in -which the prevailing class reigned undeposed, though at least unelevated. -Yet again, however, the elevatory fiat went forth, and _through an act -of creation_ the dynasty of the mammiferous quadruped began. And after -the further lapse of ages, the elevatory fiat went forth yet once more -_in an act of creation_; and with the human, heaven-aspiring dynasty, -the moral government of God, in its connection with at least the world -which we inhabit, “took beginning.” And then creation ceased. Why? -Simply because God’s moral government _had_ begun,—because in necessary -conformity with the institution of that government, there was to be a -thorough identity maintained between the glorified and immortal beings -of the terminal dynasty, and the dying magnates of the dynasty which now -is; and because, in consequence of the maintenance of this identity as -an essential condition of this moral government, mere _acts of creation_ -could no longer carry on the elevatory process. The work analogous in its -end and object to those _acts of creation_ which gave to our planet its -successive dynasties of higher and yet higher existences, is the work of -REDEMPTION. It is the elevatory process of the present time,—the only -possible provision for that final act of _re_-creation “to everlasting -life,” which shall usher in the terminal dynasty. - -I cannot avoid thinking that many of our theologians attach a too narrow -meaning to the remarkable reason “annexed to the Fourth Commandment” by -the Divine Lawgiver. “God rested on the seventh day,” says the text, -“from all his work which He had created and made; and God blessed the -seventh day, and sanctified it.” And such is the reason given in the -Decalogue why man should also rest on the seventh day. God rested on the -Sabbath, and sanctified it; and therefore man ought also to rest on the -Sabbath, and keep it holy. But I know not where we shall find grounds -for the belief that that Sabbath-day during which God rested was merely -commensurate in its duration with one of the Sabbaths of short-lived -man,—a brief period, measured by a single revolution of the earth on -its axis. We have not, as has been shown, a shadow of evidence that -He resumed his work of creation on the morrow: the geologist finds no -trace of post-Adamic creation,—the theologian can tell us of none. God’s -Sabbath of rest may still exist;—_the work of REDEMPTION may be the work -of his Sabbath day_. That elevatory process through successive acts of -creation which engaged Him during myriads of ages, was of an ordinary -week-day character; but in when the term of his moral government began, -the elevatory process proper to it assumed the Divine character of the -Sabbath. This special view appears to lend peculiar emphasis to the -reason embodied in the commandment. The collation of the passage with -the geologic record seems, as if by a species of re-translation, to make -it enunciate as its injunction, “Keep this day, not merely as a day of -memorial related to a past fact, but also as a day of coöperation with -God in the work of elevation in relation both to a present fact and -a future purpose. God keeps his Sabbath,” it says, “in order that He -may save; keep yours also, in order that ye may be saved.” It serves, -besides, to throw light on the prominence of the Sabbatical command, -in a digest of law of which no part or tittle can pass away until the -fulfilment of all things. During the present dynasty of probation and -trial, that special work of both God and man on which the character of -the future dynasty depends, is the Sabbath-day work of saving and being -saved.[41] - -It is in this dynasty of the future that man’s moral and intellectual -faculties will receive their full development The expectation of any -very great advance in the present scene of things—great, at least, when -measured by man’s large capacity of conceiving of the good and fair—seems -to be, like all human hope when restricted to time, an expectation -doomed to disappointment. There are certain limits within which the race -improves;—civilization is better than the want of it, and the taught -superior to the untaught man. There is a change, too, effected in the -moral nature, through that Spirit which, by working belief in the heart, -brings its aspirations into harmony with the realities of the unseen -world, that, in at least its relation to the future state, cannot be -estimated too highly. But conception can travel very far beyond even its -best effects in their merely secular bearing; nay, it is peculiarly its -nature to show the men most truly the subjects of it, how miserably they -fall short of the high standard of conduct and feeling which it erects, -and to teach them, more emphatically than by words, that their degree -of happiness must of necessity be as low as their moral attainments are -humble. Further,—man, though he has been increasing in knowledge ever -since his appearance on earth, has not been improving in faculty;—a -shrewd fact, which they who expect most from the future of this world -would do well to consider. The ancient masters of mind were in no respect -inferior in calibre to their predecessors. We have not yet shot ahead -of the old Greeks in either the perception of the beautiful, or in the -ability of producing it; there has been no improvement in the inventive -faculty since the Iliad was written, some three thousand years ago; nor -has taste become more exquisite, or the perception of the harmony of -numbers more nice, since the age of the Æneid. Science is cumulative in -its character; and so its votaries in modern times stand on a higher -pedestal than their predecessors. But though nature produced a Newton -some two centuries ago, as she produced a Goliath of Gath at an earlier -period, the modern philosophers, as a class, do not exceed in actual -stature the worse informed ancients,—the Euclids, Archimedeses, and -Aristotles. We would be without excuse if, with the Bacon, Milton, and -Shakspeare of these latter ages of the world full before us, we recurred -to the obsolete belief that the human race is deteriorating; but then, on -the other hand, we have certain evidence, that since genius first began -unconsciously to register in its works its own bulk and proportions, -there has been no increase in the mass or improvement in the quality of -individual mind. As for the dream that there is to be some extraordinary -elevation of the general platform of the race achieved by means of -education, it is simply the hallucination of the age,—the world’s present -alchemical expedient for converting farthings into guineas, sheerly by -dint of scouring. Not but that education is good; it exercises, and, -in the ordinary mind, developes, faculty. But it will not anticipate -the terminal dynasty. Yet further,— man’s average capacity of happiness -seems to be as limited and as incapable of increase as his average reach -of intellect: it is a mediocre capacity at best; nor is it greater -by a shade now, in these days of power-looms and portable manures, -than in the times of the old patriarchs. So long, too, as the law of -increase continues, man must be subject to the law of death, with its -stern attendants, suffering and sorrow; for the two laws go necessarily -together; and so long as death reigns, human creatures, in even the best -of times, will continue to quit this scene of being without professing -much satisfaction at what they have found either in it or themselves. It -will no doubt be a less miserable world than it is now, when the good -come, as there is reason to hope they one day shall, to be a majority; -but it will be felt to be an inferior sort of world even then, and be -even fuller than now of wishes and longings for a better. Let it improve -as it may, it will be a scene of probation and trial till the end. And -so Faith, undeceived by the mirage of the midway desert, whatever form -or name, political or religious, the phantasmagoria may bear, must -continue to look beyond its unsolid and tremulous glitter,—its bare rocks -exaggerated by the vapor into air-drawn castles, and its stunted bushes -magnified into goodly trees,—and, fixing her gaze upon the re-creation -yet future,—the terminal dynasty yet unbegun,—she must be content to -enter upon her final rest—for she will not enter upon it earlier—“at -return” - - “Of Him, the Woman’s Seed, - Last in the clouds, from heaven to be revealed - In glory of the Father, to dissolve - Satan with his perverted world, then raise - From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, - New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date, - Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love, - To bring forth fruits,—joy and eternal bliss.” - -But it may be judged that I am trespassing on a field into which I have -no right to enter. Save, however, for its close proximity with that in -which the geologist expatiates as properly his own, this little volume -would never have been written. It is the fact that man must believingly -coöperate with God in the work of preparation for the final dynasty, -or exist throughout its never-ending cycles as a lost and degraded -creature, that alone renders the development hypothesis formidable. -But inculcating that the elevatory process is one of the natural law, -not of moral endeavor,—by teaching, inferentially at least, that in the -better state of things which is coming there is to be an identity of -race with that of the existing dynasty, but no identity of individual -consciousness,—that, on the contrary, the life after death which we -are to inherit is to be merely a horrid life of wriggling impurities, -originated in the putrefactive mucus,—and that thus the men who now -live possess no real stake in the kingdom of the future,—it is its -direct tendency, so far as its influence extends, to render the required -coöperation with God an impossibility. For that coöperation cannot exist -without belief as its basis. The hypothesis involves a misreading of the -geologic record, which not merely affects its meaning in relation to the -mind, and thus, in a question of science, substitutes error for truth, -but which also threatens to affect the record itself, in relation to the -destiny of every individual perverted and led astray. It threatens to -write down among the degraded and the lost, men who, under the influence -of an unshaken faith, might have risen at the dawn of the terminal -period, to enjoy the fulness of eternity among the glorified and the -good. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Mr. Miller is the author also of _Scenes and Legends of the North of -Scotland_, one vol. 8vo.; _A Letter from one of the Scotch people to the -Right Honorable Lord Brougham and Vaux, on the opinions expressed by his -Lordship in the Auchterarder Case_; and _The Whiggism of the Old School, -as exemplified in the Past History and Present Position of the Church -of Scotland_. The second of these works is well characterized by Mr. -Gladstone as “an able, elegant, and masculine production.” - -[2] London, 1847, pp. 409 - -[3] Since the above sentence was written and set in type, I have learned -that my ingenious friend, Mr. Charles Peach of the Customs, Fowey, -so well known for his palæontological discoveries, has just found in -the Devonian system of Cornwall, fragments of what seem to be dermal -plates of _Asterolepis_. It is a somewhat curious circumstance, that -the two farthest removed extremities of Great Britain—Cornwall and -Caithness—should be tipped by fossiliferous deposits of the same ancient -system, and that organisms which, when they lived, were contemporary, -should be found embedded in the rocks which rise over the British Channel -on the one extremity, and overhang the Pentland Frith on the other. - -[4] Figured from a Thurso specimen, slightly different in its proportions -from the Stromness specimen described. - -[5] Dr. George Garson, Stromness, and Mr. William Watt, jun. Skaill. - -[6] The Continental assertors of the development hypothesis are greatly -more frank than those of our own country regarding the “life after -death,” and what man has to expect from it. The individual, they tell -us, perishes forever; but, then, out of his remains there spring up -other vitalities. The immortality of the soul is, it would seem, an idle -figment, for there really exists no such things as souls; but is there no -comfort in being taught, instead, that we are to resolve into monads and -maggots? Job solaced himself with the assurance that, even after worms -had destroyed his body, he was in the flesh to see God. Had Professor -Oken been one of his comforters, he would have sought to restrict his -hopes to the prospect of living in the worms. “If the organic fundamental -substance _consist_ of infusoria,” says the Professor, “so must the -whole organic world _originate_ from infusoria. Plants and animals can -only be metamorphoses of infusoria. This being granted, so also must all -organizations _consist_ of infusoria, and, during their destruction, -dissolve into the same. Every plant, every animal, is converted by -maceration into a mucous mass; this putrefies, and the moisture is -stocked with infusoria. Putrefaction is nothing else than a division -of organisms into infusoria,—a reduction of the higher to the primary -life.... Death is no annihilation, but only a change. One individual -emerges out of another. Death is only a transition to another life,—not -into death. This transition from one life to another takes place through -the primary condition of the organic, or the mucus.”—_Physio-Philosophy_, -pp. 187-189. - -[7] I trust that at least by and by there may be an exception claimed, -from the general, but, I am sure, well-meant, censure of this passage, -in favor of the Free Church of Scotland. It has got as its Professor of -Physical Science—thanks to the sagacity of Chalmers—Dr. John Fleming, -a man of European reputation, and all that seems further necessary, in -order to secure the benefits contemplated in the appointment, is, that -attendance on his course should be rendered imperative on _all_ Free -Church candidates for the ministry. - -[8] Agassiz’s description of the _Pterichthys_, as quoted by Humboldt, in -his _Cosmos_. - -[9] From Murchison’s Silurian System. - -[10] These scales, which occur in a detached state, in a stratified clay -of the Old Red Sandstone, near Cromarty, present for their size a larger -extent of _cover_ than the scales of any other Ganoid. - -[11] A peculiarity which also occurs in the anterior dorsal of the -_Dipterus_. - -[12] From the head of _Raja clavata_. - -[13] The darker, upper patch in this figure indicates a portion in which -the scales of the fins in the fossil still retain their enamel;—the -lighter, a portion from which the enamel has disappeared. - -[14] The Acanths of the Coal Measures possess the cranial buckler. - -[15] Professor Owen, in fixing the homologies of the ichthyic head, -differs considerably from Cuvier; but his view seems to be demonstrably -the correct one. It will, however, be seen, that in my attempted -comparison of the divisions of the ancient ganoid cranium with those of -the craniums of existing fishes, the points at issue between the two -great naturalists are not involved, otherwise than as mere questions of -words. The matter to be determined, for instance, is not whether plate A -in the skulls of the cod and _Coccosteus_ be the homologue of a part of -the occipital or that of a part of the parietal bones, but whether plate -A in the _Coccosteus_ be the homologue of plate A in the cod. The letters -employed I have borrowed from Agassiz’s restoration of the _Coccosteus_; -whereas the figures intimate divisions which the imperfect keeping of the -specimens on which the ichthyologist founded did not enable him to detect. - -[16] The jaws (10, 10) which exhibit in the print their greatest breadth, -would have presented in the animal, seen from beneath, their narrow -under-edges, and have nearly fallen into the line of the sub-opercular -plates, (13, 13.) - -[17] In all probability it is likewise the principle of the placoid -skull. The numerous osseous points by which the latter is encrusted, -each capable of increase at the edges, seem the minute bricks of an -ample dome. It is possible, however, that new points may be formed in -the interstices between the first formed ones, as what anatomists term -the _triquetra_ or _Wormiana_ form between the serrated edges of the -lambdoidal suture in the human skull; and that the osseous surface of the -cerebral dome may thus extend, as the dome itself increases in size, not -through the growth of the previously existing pieces,—the minute bricks -of my illustration,—but through the addition of new ones. Equally, in -either case, however, that essential difference between the placoid skull -and the placoid vertebra, to which I have referred, appears to hinge -on the circumstance, that while the osseous nucleus of each vertebral -centrum could form, in even its most complicated shape, from a _single_ -point, the osseous walls of the cranium had to be formed from _hundreds_. -The accompanying diagram serves to show after what manner the vertebral -centrum in the Ray enlarges with the growth of the animal, by addition of -bony matter external to the point in the middle, at which ossification -first begins. The horizontal lines indicate the lines of increment in the -two internal cones which each centrum comprises, and the vertical ones -the lines of increment in the lateral pillars. - -[Illustration: Fig. 23. - -SECTION OF VERTEBRAL CENTRUM OF THORNBACK.] - -[18] One of the Thurso coprolites in my possession is about one fourth -longer than the larger of the two specimens figured here, and nearly -thrice as broad. - -[19] In two of these, in a collection of several score, I have failed to -detect the spiral markings, though their state of keeping is decidedly -good. There are other appearances which lead me to suspect that the -_Asterolepis_ was not the only large fish of the Lower Old Red Sandstone; -but my facts on the subject are too inconclusive to justify aught more -than sedulous inquiry. - -[20] The shaded plate, (_a_,) accidentally presented in this specimen, -belongs to the upper part of the head. It is the posterior frontal -plate F, which half-encircled the eye orbit, (see fig. 29;) and I have -introduced it into the print here, as in none of the other prints, or of -any other specimens, is its upper surface shown. - -[21] The late Mr. John Thurston. - -[22] “Mr. Phillips proceeded to describe some remains of a small fish, -resembling the _Cheiracanthus_ of the Old Red Sandstone, scales and -spines of which he had found in a quarry at Hales End, on the western -side of the Malverns. The section presented beds of the Old Red Sandstone -inclined to the west; beneath these were arenaceous beds of a lighter -color, forming the junction with Silurian shales; these, again, passing -on to calcareous beds in the lower part of the quarry, containing the -corals and shells of the Aymestry Limestone, of their agreement with -which stronger evidence might be obtained elsewhere. He had found none -of these scales in the junction beds or in the Upper Ludlow Shales; but -about sixty or one hundred feet lower, just above the Aymestry Limestone, -his attention had been attracted to discolored spots on the _surface_ of -the beds, which, upon microscopic examination, proved to be the minute -scales and spines before mentioned. These remains were only apparent -on the surface, whilst the ‘fish-bed’ of the Upper Ludlow rock, as it -usually occurred, was an inch thick, consisting of innumerable small -teeth and spines.”—_Report, in “Athenæum” for 1842, of the Proceedings of -the Twelfth Meeting of British Association, (Manchester.)_ - -[23] “This is the lowest position” (that of the Onondago Limestone) “in -the State of New York in which any remains have been found higher in -the scale of organized beings than _Crustacea_, with the exception of -an imperfectly preserved fish-bone discovered by Hall in the Oriskany -Sandstone. That specimen, together with the defensive fish-bone found in -this part of the New York system, furnishes evidences of the existence of -animals belonging to the class _vertebrata_ during the deposition of the -middle part of the protozoic strata.”—_American Journal of Science and -Arts for 1846_, p. 63. - -[24] “The shales _alternating_ with the Wenlock Limestone.” (_Edinburgh -Review._) - -[25] The Silurian Placoids are most adequately represented by the -_Cestracion_ of the southern hemisphere; but I know not that of the -peculiar character and instincts of this interesting Placoid,—the last of -its race,—there is any thing known. For its form and general appearance -see fig. 49, page 177. - -[26] Such as the dog-fishes, picked and spotted. - -[27] The twelfth in _Spinax Acanthius_, and the fourteenth in _Scyllium -Stellare_. - -[28] It will scarce be urged against the degradation theory, that those -races which, tried by the tests of defect or misplacement of parts, we -deem degraded, are not less fitted for carrying on what in their own -little spheres is the proper business of life, than the non-degraded -orders and families. The objection is, however, a possible one, and one -which a single remark may serve to obviate. It is certainly true that the -degraded families _are_ thoroughly fitted for the performance of all the -work given them to do. They greatly increase when placed in favorable -circumstances, and, when vigorous and thriving, enjoy existence. But then -the same may be said of all animals, without reference to their place in -the scale;—the mollusc is as thoroughly adapted to its circumstances and -as fitted to accomplish the end proper to its being, as the mammiferous -quadruped, and the mammiferous quadruped as man himself; but the fact of -perfect adaptation in no degree invalidates the other not less certain -fact of difference of rank, nor proves that the mollusc is equal to the -quadruped, or the quadruped to man. And, of course, the remark equally -bears on the _reduced_ as on the _unelevated_,—on lowness of place when -a result of degradation in races pertaining to a higher division of -animals, as on lowness of place when a result of the humble standing of -the division to which the races belong. - -[29] The vertebral column in the genus _Diplopterus_ ran, as in the -placoid genus _Scyllium_, nearly through the middle of the caudal fin. - -[30] In the following diagram a few simple lines serve to exhibit the -progress of degradation. Fig. _a_ represents the symmetrical Placoids of -the Silurian period, consisting of head, neck, body, tail, fore limbs and -hinder limbs; fig. _b_ represents those heterocercal Ganoids of the Old -Red Sandstone, Coal Measures, and Permian System, in which the neck is -extinguished, and the fore limbs stuck on to the occiput; fig. _c_, those -homocercal Ganoids of the Trias Lias, Oolite, and Wealden, whose tails -spread out into broad terminal processes, without homologue in the higher -animals; fig. _d_, those Acanthopterygii of the Chalk that, in addition -to the non-homological processes, have both fore limbs and hinder -limbs stuck round the head; while fig. _e_ represents the asymmetrical -Platessa, of the same period, with one of its eyes in the middle of its -head, and the other thrust out to the side. - -[Illustration] - -[31] I would, however, respectfully suggest, that that theory of cerebral -vertebræ, on which, in this question, the comparative anatomists proceed -as their principle, and which finds as little support in the geologic -record from the actual history of the fore limbs as from the actual -history of the bones of the cranium, may be more ingenious than sound. It -is a shrewd circumstance, that the rocks refuse to testify in its favor. -Agassiz, I find, decides against it on other than geological grounds; -and his conclusion is certainly rendered not the less worthy of careful -consideration by the fact that, yielding to the force of evidence, his -views on the subject underwent a thorough change. He had first held, -and then rejected it. “I have shared,” he says, “with a multitude of -other naturalists, the opinion which regards the cranium as composed of -vertebræ; and I am consequently in some degree called upon to point out -the motives which have induced me to reject it.” - -“M. Oken,” he continues, “was the first to assign this signification to -the bones of the cranium. The new doctrine he expounded was received -in Germany with great enthusiasm by the school of the philosophers of -nature. The author conceived the cranium to consist of three vertebræ, -and the basal occipital, the sphenoid, and the ethmoid, were regarded -as the central parts of these cranial vertebræ. On these alleged bodies -of vertebræ, the arches enveloping the central parts of the nervous -system were raised, while on the opposite side were attached the inferior -pieces, which went to form the vegetative arch destined to embrace the -intestinal canal and the large vessels. It would be too tedious to -enumerate in this place the changes which each author introduced, in -order to modify this matter so as to make it suit his own views. Some -went the length of affirming that the vertebræ of the head were as -complete as those of the trunk; and, by means of various dismemberments, -separations, and combinations, all the forms of the cranium were referred -to the vertebræ, by admitting that the number of pieces was invariably -fixed in every head, and that all the vertebrata, whatever might be -their organization in other respects, had in their heads the same number -of points of ossification. At a later period, what was erroneous in -this manner of regarding the subject was detected; but the idea of the -vertebral composition of the head was still retained. It was admitted as -a general law, that the cranium was composed of three primitive vertebræ, -as the embryo is of three blastodermic leaflets; but that these vertebræ, -like the leaflets, existed only ideally, and that their presence, -although easily demonstrated in certain cases, could only be slightly -traced, and with the greatest difficulty, in other instances. The notion -thus laid down of the virtual existence of cranial vertebræ did not -encounter very great opposition; it could not be denied that there was a -certain general resemblance between the osseous case of the brain and the -rachidian canal; the occipital, in particular, had all the characteristic -features of a vertebra. But whenever an attempt was made to push the -analogy further, and to determine rigorously the anterior vertebræ of the -cranium, the observer found himself arrested by insurmountable obstacles, -and he was obliged always to revert to the virtual existence. - -“In order to explain my idea clearly, let me have recourse to an -example. It is certain that organized bodies are sometimes endowed with -virtual qualities, which, at a certain period of the being’s life, elude -dissection, and all our means of investigation. It is thus that at the -moment of their origin, the eggs of all animals have such a resemblance -to each other, that it would be impossible to distinguish, even by the -aid of the most powerful microscope, the ovarial egg of a craw-fish, -for example, from that of true fish. And yet who would deny that beings -in every respect different from each other exist in these eggs? It is -precisely because the difference manifests itself at a later period, -in proportion as the embryo develops itself, that we are authorized -to conclude, that, even from the earliest period, the eggs were -different,—that each had virtual qualities proper to itself, although -they could not be discovered by our senses. If, on the contrary, any -one should find two eggs perfectly alike, and should observe two beings -perfectly identical issue from them, he would greatly err if he ascribed -to these eggs different virtual qualities. It is therefore necessary, in -order to be in a condition to suppose that virtual properties peculiar -to it are concealed in an animal, that these properties should manifest -themselves once, in some phase or other of its development. Now, applying -this principle to the theory of cranial vertebræ, we should say, that -if these vertebræ virtually exist in the adult, they must needs show -themselves in reality, at a certain period of development. If, on the -contrary, they are found neither in the embryo nor the adult, I am of -opinion that we are entitled likewise to dispute their virtual existence. - -“Here, however, an objection may be made to me, drawn from the -physiological value of the vertebræ, the function of which, as is -well known, is, on the one hand, to furnish a solid support to the -muscular contractions which determine the movements of the trunk, and, -on the other, to protect the centres of the nervous system, by forming -a more or less solid case completely around them. The bodies of the -vertebræ are particularly destined to the first of these offices; the -neurapophyses to the second. What can be more natural than to admit, from -the consideration of this, that in the head, the bodies of the vertebræ -diminish in proportion as the moving function becomes lost, while the -neurapophyses are considerably developed for protecting the brain, the -volume of which is very considerable, when compared with that of the -spinal marrow? Have we not an example of this fact in the vertebræ of -the tail, where the neurapophyses become completely obliterated, and -a simple cylindrical body alone remains? Now, may it not be the case, -that in the head, the bodies of the vertebræ have disappeared; and that, -in consequence, there is a prolongation of the cord only as far as the -moving functions of the vertebræ extend? There is some truth in this -argument, and it would be difficult to refute it _a priori_. But it -loses all its force the moment that we enter upon a detailed examination -of the bones of the head. Thus, what would we call, according to this -hypothesis, the principal sphenoid, the great wings of the sphenoid, and -the ethmoid, which form the floor of the cerebral cavity? It may be said -they are apophyses. But the apophyses protect the nervous centres only -on the side and above. It may be said that they are the bodies of the -vertebræ. But they are formed without the concurrence of the dorsal cord; -they cannot, therefore, be the bodies of the vertebræ. It must therefore -be allowed, that these bones at least do not enter into the vertebral -type; that they are in some measure peculiar. And if this be the case -with them, why may not the other protective plates be equally independent -of the vertebral type; the more so, because the relations of the frontals -and parietals vary so much, that it would be almost impossible to assign -to them a constant place?” - -[32] It is stated by Mr. Witham, that, “except in a few instances, he -had ineffectually tried, with the aid of the microscope, to obtain some -insight into the structure of coal. Owing,” he adds, “to its great -opacity, which is probably due to mechanical pressure, the action of -chemical affinity, and the percolation of acidulous waters, all traces -of organization appear to have been obliterated.” I have heard the late -Mr. Sanderson, who prepared for Mr. Witham most of the specimens figured -in his well-known work on the “Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables,” -and from whom the materials of his statement on this point seem to have -been derived, make a similar remark. It was rare, he said, to find a -bit of coal that exhibited the organic structure. The case, however, is -far otherwise; and the ingenious mechanic and his employer were misled, -simply by the circumstance, that it is rare to find pieces of coal which -exhibit the ligneous fibre, existing in a state of keeping solid enough -to stand the grinding of the lapidary’s wheel. The lignite usually -occurs in thin layers of a substance resembling soft charcoal, at which, -from the loose adhesion of the fibres, the coal splits at a stroke; and -as it cannot be prepared as a transparency, it is best examined by a -Stanhope lens. It will be found, tried in this manner, that so far is -vegetable fibre from being of rare occurrence in coal,—our Scotch coal -at least,—that almost every cubic inch contains its hundreds, nay, its -thousands, of cells. - -[33] On a point of such importance I find it necessary to strengthen my -testimony by auxiliary evidence. The following is the judgment, on this -ancient petrifaction, of Mr. Nicol of Edinburgh,—confessedly one of our -highest living authorities in that division of fossil botany which takes -cognizance of the internal structure of lignites, and decides, from their -anatomy, their race and family:— - - “Edinburgh, 19th July, 1845. - - “DEAR SIR,—I have examined the structure of the fossil wood - which you found in the Old Red Sandstone at Cromarty, and - have no hesitation in stating, that the reticulated texture - of the transverse sections, though somewhat compressed, - clearly indicates a coniferous origin; but as there is not - the slightest trace of a disc to be seen in the longitudinal - sections parallel to the medullary rays, it is impossible to - say whether it belongs to the Pine or Araucarian division. I - am, &c., - - “WILLIAM NICOL.” - -It will be seen that Mr. Nicol failed to detect what I now deem the discs -of this conifer,—those stippled markings to which I have referred, and -which the engraver has indicated in no exaggerated style, in one of the -longitudinal sections (_b_) of the wood-cut given above. But even were -this portion of the evidence wholly wanting, we would be left in doubt, -in consequence, not whether the Old Red lignite formed part of a true -gymnospermous tree, but whether that tree is now represented by the pines -of Europe and America, or by the araucarians of Chili and New Zealand. -Were I to risk an opinion in a department not particularly my province it -would be in favor of an araucarian relationship. - -[34] The following digest from Professor Balfour’s very admirable -“Manual of Botany,” of what is held on this curious subject, may be -not unacceptable to the reader. “It is an interesting question to -determine the mode in which the various species and tribes of plants -were originally scattered over the globe. Various hypotheses have -been advanced on the subject. Linnæus entertained the opinion that -there was at first only one primitive centre of vegetation, from which -plants were distributed over the globe. Some, avoiding all discussions -and difficulties, suppose that plants were produced at first in the -localities where they are now seen vegetating. Others think that each -species of plant originated in, and was diffused from, a single primitive -centre; and that there were numerous such centres situated in different -parts of the world, each centre being the seat of a particular number -of species. They thus admit great vegetable migrations, similar to -those of the human races. Those who adopt the latter view recognize in -the distribution of plants some of the last revolutions of our planet, -and the action of numerous and varied forces, which impede or favor -the dissemination of vegetables in the present day. They endeavor to -ascertain the primitive flora of countries, and to trace the vegetable -migrations which have taken place. Daubeny says, that analogy favors -the supposition that each species of plant was originally formed in -some particular locality, whence it spread itself gradually over a -certain area, rather than that the earth was at once, by the fiat of the -Almighty, covered with vegetation in the manner we at present behold it. -The human race rose from a single pair; and the distribution of plants -and animals over a certain definite area would seem to imply that the -same was the general law. Analogy would lead us to believe that the -extension of species over the earth originally took place on the same -plan on which it is conducted at present, when a new island starts up in -the midst of the ocean, produced either by a coral reef or a volcano. -In these cases the whole surface is not at once overspread with plants, -but a gradual progress of vegetation is traced from the accidental -introduction of a single seed, perhaps, of each species, wafted by winds -or floated by currents. The remarkable limitation of certain species to -single spots on the globe seems to favor the supposition of specific -centres.” - -[35] _Rhodomenia palmata_ and _Alaria esculenta_. - -[36] _Porphyra laciniata_, _Chorda filum_, and _Enteromorpha compressa_. - -[37] “Dr. Neill mentions,” says the Rev. Mr. Landsborough, in his -complete and very interesting “History of British Sea-Weeds,” “that on -our shores algæ generally occupy zones in the following order, beginning -from deep water:—_F. Filum_; _F. esculentus_ and _bulbosus_, _F. -digitatus_, _saccharinus_, and _loreus_; _F. serratus_ and _crispus_; _F. -nodosus_ and _vesiculosus_; _F. canaliculatus_; and, last of all, _F. -pygmæus_; which is satisfied if it be within reach of the spray.” - -[38] We are supplied with a curious example of that ever-returning -cycle of speculation in which the human mind operates, by not only the -introduction of the _principle_ of Epicurus into the “Vestiges,” but also -by the unconscious employment of even his very _arguments_, slightly -modified by the floating semi-scientific notions of the time. The -following passages, taken, the one from the modern work, the other from -Fénélon’s life of the old Greek philosopher, are not unworthy of being -studied, as curiously illustrative of the cycle of thought. Epicurus, I -must, however, first remind the reader, in the words of his biographer, -“supposed that men, and all other animals, were originally produced by -the ground. According to him, the primitive earth was fat and nitrous; -and the sun, gradually warming it, soon covered it with herbage and -shrubs: there also began to arise on the surface of the ground a great -number of small tumors like mushrooms, which having in a certain time -come to maturity, the skin burst, and there came forth little animals, -which, gradually retiring from the place where they were produced, began -to respire.” And there can be little doubt, that had the microscope been -a discovery of early Greece, the passage here would have told us, not of -mushroom-like tumors, but of monads. Save that the element of microscopic -fact is awanting in the one and present in the other, the following are -strictly parallel lines of argument:— - -“To the natural objection that the earth does not now produce men, -lions, and dogs, Epicurus replies that the fecundity of the earth is -now exhausted. In advanced age a woman ceases to bear children; a piece -of land never before cultivated produces much more during the few first -years than it does afterwards; and when a forest is once cut down, the -soil never produces trees equal to those which have been rooted up. -Those which are afterwards planted become dwarfish, and are perpetually -degenerating. We are, however, he argues, by no means certain but there -may be at present rabbits, hares, foxes, bears, and other animals, -produced by the earth in their perfect state. The reason why we are -backward in admitting it is, that it happens in retired places, and -never falls under our view; and, never seeing rats but such as have -been produced by other rats, we adopt the opinion that the earth never -produced any.” (_Fénélon’s Lives of the Ancient Philosophers._) - -“In the first place, there is no reason to suppose that, though life had -been imparted by natural means, after the first cooling of the surface -to a suitable temperament, it would continue thereafter to be capable of -being imparted in like manner. The great work of the peopling of this -globe with living species is mainly a fact accomplished: the highest -known species came as a crowning effort thousands of years ago. The work -being thus to all appearance finished, we are not necessarily to expect -that the origination of life and of species should be conspicuously -exemplified in the present day. We are rather to expect that the vital -phenomena presented to our eyes should mainly, if not entirely, be -limited to a regular and unvarying succession of races by the ordinary -means of generation. This, however, is no more an argument against a -time when phenomena of the first kind prevailed, than it would be a -proof against the fact of a mature man having once been a growing youth, -that he is now seen growing no longer..... Secondly, it is far from -being certain that the primitive imparting of life and form to inorganic -elements is not a fact of our times.” (_Vestiges of Creation._) - -[39] “_Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation_,” and “_Explanations, -being a Sequel to the Vestiges_.” - -[40] The chapter in which this passage occurs originally appeared, -with several of the others, in the _Witness_ newspaper, in a series of -articles, entitled “Rambles of a Geologist,” and drew forth the following -letter from a correspondent of the _Scottish Press_, the organ of a -powerful and thoroughly respectable section of the old Dissenters of -Scotland. I present it to the reader merely to show, that if, according -to the author of the “Vestiges,” geologists assailed the development -hypothesis in the fond hope of “purchasing impunity for themselves,” they -would succeed in securing only disappointment for their pains:— - - “THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. - - “_To the Editor of the Scottish Press._ - - “SIR,—I occasionally observe articles in your neighbor and - contemporary the _Witness_, characteristically headed ‘Rambles - of a Geologist,’ wherein the writer with great zeal once more - ‘slays the slain’ heresies of the ‘Vestiges of Creation.’ - This writer (of the ‘Rambles,’ I mean) nevertheless, and at - the same time, announces his own tenets to be much of the - same sort, as applied to mere dead matter, that those of the - ‘Vestiges’ are with regard to living organisms. He maintains - that the world, during the last million of years, has been of - itself rising or developing, without the interposition of a - miracle, from chaos into its present state; and, of course, - as it is still, as a world, confessedly far below the acme of - physical perfection, that it must be just now on its passage, - self-progressing, towards that point, which terminus it may - reach in another million of years hence.[!!!] The author of - the ‘Vestiges,’ as quoted by the author of the ‘Rambles,’ in - the last number of the _Witness_, complains that the latter - and his allies are not at all so liberal to him as, from their - present circumstances and position, he had a right to expect. - He (the author of the ‘Vestiges’) reminds his opponents that - they have themselves only lately emerged from the antiquated - scriptural notions that our world was the direct and almost - immediate construction of its Creator,—as much so, in fact, - as any of its organized tenants,—and that it was then created - in a state of physical excellence, the highest possible, to - render it a suitable habitation for these tenants, and all - this only about six or seven thousand years ago,—to the new - light of their present _physico-Lamarckian_ views; and he asks, - and certainly not without reason, why should _these men_, so - circumstanced, be so anxious to stop him in his attempt to move - one step further forward in the very direction they themselves - have made the last move?—that is, in his endeavor to extend - their own principles of self-development from mere matter to - living creatures. Now, Sir, I confess myself to be one of those - (and possibly you may have more readers similarly constituted) - who not only cannot see any great difference between merely - _physical_ and _organic_ development,[!!] but who would be - inclined to allow the latter, absurd as it is, the advantage in - point of likelihood.[!!!] The author of the ‘Rambles,’ however, - in the face of this, assures us that _his_ views of physical - self-development and long chronology belong to the inductive - sciences. Now, I could at this stage of his rambles have wished - very much that, instead of merely _saying_ so, he had given - his _demonstration_. He refers, indeed, to several great men, - who, he says, are of his opinion. Most that these men have - written on the question at issue I have seen, but it appeared - far from demonstrative, and some of them, I know, had not fully - made up their mind on the point.[!!!] Perhaps the author of - the ‘Rambles’ could favor us with the inductive process that - converted himself; and, as the attainment of truth, and not - victory, is my object, I promise either to acquiesce in or - rationally refute it.[?] Till then I hold by my antiquated - tenets, that our world, nay, the whole material universe, was - created about six or seven thousand years ago, and that in a - state of physical excellence of which we have in our present - fallen world only the ‘vestiges of creation.’ I conclude by - mentioning that this view I have held now for nearly thirty - years, and, amidst all the vicissitudes of the philosophical - world during that period, I have never seen cause to change - it. Of course, with this view I was, during the interval - referred to, a constant opponent of the once famous, though now - exploded, nebular hypothesis of La Place; and I yet expect to - see _physical development_ and _long chronology_ wither also on - this earth, now that THEIR ROOT (the said hypothesis) has been - eradicated from the SKY.[!!!]—I am, Sir, your most obedient - servant, - - “PHILALETHES.” - -I am afraid there is little hope of converting a man who has held so -stoutly by his notions “for nearly thirty years;” especially as, during -that period, he has been acquainting himself with what writers such as -Drs. Chalmers, Buckland, and Pye Smith have written on the other side. -But for the _demonstration_ which he asks, as _I_ have conducted it, I -beg leave to refer him to the seventeenth chapter of my little work, -“First Impressions of England and its People.” I am, however, inclined -to suspect that he is one of a class whose objections are destined to be -removed rather by the operation of the laws of matter than of those of -mind. For it is a comfortable consideration, that in this controversy the -geologists _have_ the laws of matter on their side;—“the stars in their -courses fight against Sisera.” Their opponents now, like the opponents -of the astronomer in the ages gone by, are, in most instances, men who -have been studying the matter “for nearly thirty years.” When they study -it for a few years longer they disappear; and the men of the same cast -and calibre who succeed them are exactly the men who throw themselves -most confidently into the arms of the enemy, and look down upon their -poor silent predecessors with the loftiest commiseration. It is, however, -not uninstructive to remark how thoroughly, in some instances, the -weaker friends and the wilier enemies of Revelation are at one in their -conclusions respecting natural phenomena. The correspondent of the -_Scottish Press_ merely regards the views of the author of the “Vestiges” -as possessing “the advantage, in point of likelihood,” over those of -the geologists his antagonists: his ally the Dean of York goes greatly -further, and stands up as stoutly for the transmutation of species as -Lamarck himself. Descanting, in his _New System of Geology_, on the -various forms of trilobites, ammonites, belemnites, &c. Dean Cockburn -says,— - -“These creatures appear to have possessed the power of secreting from -the stone beneath them a limy covering for their backs, and perhaps, -fed partly on the same solid material. Supposing, now that the first -trilobites were destroyed by the Llandeilo Slates, some spawn of these -creatures would arise above these flags, and, after a time, would be -warmed into existence. These _molluscs_,[!!] then, having a better -material from which to extract their food and covering, would probably -expand in a slightly different form, and with a more extensive mantle -than what belonged to the parent species. The same would be still more -the case with a new generation, fed upon a new deposit from some deeper -volcano, such as the Caradoc or Wenlock Limestone, in which lime more -and more predominates. Now, if any one will examine the various prints -of trilobites in Sir R. Murchison’s valuable work, he will find but very -trifling differences in any of them,[!!] and those differences only -in the stony covering of their backs. I knew two brothers once much -alike: the one became a curate with a large family; the other a London -alderman. If the skins of these two pachydermata had been preserved in a -fossil state, there would have been less resemblance between them than -between an _Asaphus tyrannus_ and an _Asaphus caudatus_.... A careful -and laborious investigation has discovered, as in the trilobites, a -difference in the ammonites of different strata; but such differences, -as in the former case, exist only in the form of the external shell, -and may be explained in the same manner.[!!] ... As to the scaphites, -baculites, belemnites, and all the other _ites_ which learned ingenuity -has so named, you find them in various strata the same in all important -particulars, but also differing slightly in their outward coverings, as -might be expected from the different circumstances in which each variety -was placed.[!!] The sheep in the warm valleys of Andalusia have a fine -covering like to hair; but remove them to a northern climate, and in a -few generations the back is covered with shaggy wool. The animal is the -same,—the covering only is changed.... The learned have classed those -shells under the names of terebratula, orthis, atrypa, pecten, &c. They -are all much alike.[!!!] It requires an experienced eye to distinguish -them one from another: what little differences have been pointed out may -readily be ascribed, as before, to difference of situation.”[!!!] - -The author of the “Vestiges,” with this, the fundamental portion of his -case, granted to him by the Dean, will have exceedingly little difficulty -in making out the rest for himself. The passage is, however, not without -its value, as illustrative of the darkness, in matters of physical -science, “even darkness which may be felt,” that is suffered to linger, -in this the most scientific of ages, in the Church of Buckland, Sedgwick, -and Conybeare. - -[41] The common objection to that special view which regards the _days_ -of creation as immensely protracted periods of time, furnishes a -specimen, if not of reasoning in a circle, at least of reasoning from a -mere assumption. It first takes for granted, that the Sabbath day during -which God rested was a day of but twenty-four hours; and then argues, -from the supposition, that in order to _keep up the proportion_ between -the six previous working days and the seventh day of rest, which the -reason annexed to the fourth commandment demands, these previous days -must also have been days of twenty-four hours each. It would, I have -begun to suspect, square better with the ascertained facts, and be at -least equally in accordance with Scripture, to reverse the process, -and argue that, _because_ God’s working days were immensely protracted -periods, _his_ Sabbath must _also_ be an immensely protracted period. -The reason attached to the law of the Sabbath seems to be simply _a -reason of proportion_;—the objection to which I refer is an objection -palpably founded on _considerations_ of proportion. And certainly, were -the reason to be divested of proportion, it would be divested also of its -distinctive character as a reason. Were it to run as follows, it could -not be at all understood:—“Six days shalt thou labor, &c., but on the -seventh day shalt thou do no labor, &c.; for in six immensely protracted -periods of many thousand years each did the Lord make the heavens and -earth, &c., and then rested during a brief day of twenty-four hours; -therefore the Lord blessed the brief day of twenty-four hours, and -hallowed it.” This, I repeat, would not be reason. All, however, that -seems necessary to the integrity of the reason, in its character as such, -is, that the proportion of six parts to seven should be maintained. God’s -periods may be periods expressed algebraically by letters symbolical of -unknown quantity, and man’s periods by letters symbolical of quantities -well known; but if God’s Sabbath be equal to one of his six working days, -and man’s Sabbath equal to one of _his_ six working days, the integrity -of proportion is maintained. When I see the palpable absurdity of such -a reading of the reason as the one given above, I can see no absurdity -whatever in the reading which I subjoin:—“Six _periods_ (_a=a=a=a=a=a_) -shalt thou labor, &c., but on the seventh _period_ (_b=a_) shalt thou do -no labor, &c.; for in six _periods_ (_x=x=x=x=x=x_) the Lord made heaven -and earth, &c., and rested the seventh _period_, (_y=x_;) therefore the -Lord blessed the seventh _period_, and hallowed it” The reason, in its -character as a reason of proportion, survives here in all its integrity. -Man, when in his unfallen estate, bore the image of God, but it must have -been a miniature image at best;—the proportion of man’s week to that of -his Maker may, for aught that appears, be mathematically just in its -proportions, and yet be a miniature image too,—the mere scale of a map, -on which inches represent geographical degrees. All those week days and -Sabbath days of man which have come and gone since man first entered -upon this scene of being, with all which shall yet come and go, until -the resurrection of the dead terminates the work of Redemption, may be -included, and probably _are_ included, in the one Sabbath day of God. - - - - -Valuable Works - - PUBLISHED BY GOULD AND LINCOLN, - _59 Washington Street, Boston._ - - -_HAMILTON’S LECTURES_, embracing the METAPHYSICAL and LOGICAL COURSES; -with Notes, from Original Materials, and an Appendix, containing the -Author’s Latest Development of his New Logical Theory. Edited by Rev. -HENRY LONGUEVILLE MANSEL, B. D., Prof. of Moral and Metaphysical -Philosophy in Magdalen College, Oxford, and JOHN VEITCH, M. A., of -Edinburgh. In two royal octavo volumes, viz., - - I. METAPHYSICAL LECTURES. Royal octavo, cloth, 3.50. - - II. LOGICAL LECTURES. 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