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Show 280 EXPLANATIONS. bad~er of the pre8ent day. Our existing Me lea Ta~w is therefore, acknowledged by Mr. Owen to be "the oldest k~own species of mammal on the face of the earth." It is in like manner impossible to discover any difference between the present Ulild Cat and that which lived in the bone caves with the hyrena, rhinoceros, and the tiger of the ante-drift era, all of 'vhich are said to be extinct species. So also the otter has survived sine~ an early period in the pliocene, while ~o many large1~ animals were shifted. The learned anatomist takes occasiOn from these facts to speak of a surv~ val by small and weak species of geological changes, whteh have be.en acco~pan1ed by ~he extirpation of larger and more formidable antmals of allied species. T.he infere~c~ from the facts and doctnnes of this school Is, that DIVIne power has seen fit to change the species of elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, and bears, usintr special miracles to introduce new ones, one with perhaps an !idditi?nal tooth, another with a ne;v tubercle or cusp on the thHd m~la~, an.d so forth, ~hile he has seen no occasion for a s1m1lar Interference with the otter, \Vild cat and badO'er, which accordingly have been left undisturbed in their obscurity. Such may be the belief of men of science anxious to support a theor_r'; but assuredly it will never be received br any ordinat·y men of fair understandin~s who may be able to read and comprehend the works of Mr. Owen. It were too much for even 1 child's faith. Yet the Edinbu1'gh reviewer, a member of this chool, talk of "credulity!" . . Perhaps it is bnt j u tice to. P~ofe sor !'1ctet t~ no~Ice his partial dis ent from th~ retgmng doctrme on t~Is pomt. Tht' learned per"on, fin<hng that th~ eld~r alluv~on of the Swi valleys pre"cnt mammal 1denh?al with th~::Je \Vhich no\V live there, though accompanied by remams of el phant , and con id rin~ further that "the bats, hrew , mol .., ba.clger , hare , &c., of the caverns appear to be identical with our own," concludes that .the follow inu· \\-'a the order of events a they occurred In Europe: "1'he p ci s now living, and. m.e others, were .c~·ea~ed at the commencement of the dlluv1al poch. Pa1tlalin· und tion and ch~nge of temperature cau~ed sor:ne of th~m to peri h, such a the mammoth, the species of bear havin an arched forehead, the hyrenas, th~ stag with o-igantic horns the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, &c.; \)ut the greater n~mber of the species escaped thest PROFESSOR. PICTET's OPINIONS 281 causes of destruction, and still live. Besi~e those which I have mentioned, and others which I have noticed in the body of my \Vork, it is possible, for ~ample, that the Ursus Priscus-rnay be the original of recent bears, &c. It may be said,'' he adds, ''that this idea is opposed to the theory of the peculiarity of species in each fdnnation, and to that of successive creations . . . but I cannot, on that account, refuse to adopt an explanation offacts whicl1 ."'eeu~s to me evident. The state of theoretical pal::eontolotry is still too uncertain to allow of our attaching ours 0 el ves too strongly to this or that hypothesis. It is the. study of facts which is essential, and we must enga! te in that study unbiassed by preconceived ideas oro particular syste1ns."* I would co!llmend. this opinion of one of the first men of scwnce In Europe to those British savans who regard a greater plication of the enamel in a horse's tooth, or a ridge on a turbinated shell, or a spot on a butterfly's wing, as the proof of a special interference o~ that Dei~y who w:hee~ed the orbs into space by a tranquil expression of Ius w1ll. But M. Pictet must himself revise his opinions. He must quickly perceive that the rule which he lays down for there being no new creation since the diluvial epoch is equally conclusive against new creations at any anterior time. There is a persistency of certain shells since the beginning of the tertiaries; if, then, the moles and b.ad~ gers be in any degree a proof that the present bea1· IS a Inodifi.cation of the Ursus Priscus, so also are these shells a proof that all the present mammals are modifications of those of the eocene. Several shells, again, of the sec~ ondary formation straggling into tertiaries, are not lefls conclusive, in rigid reasoning, that all the tertiary species were descended from the secondary, although the wide, unrepresented interval at that point allowed of a greater transition of forms. In short, the whole of the divisions constructed by geologists upon the supposition of extensive introductions of totally new vehicles of life must give way before the application of this rule, and it must be seen that 'vhat they call new species are but variations upon the old. "'\Vhat, then, will remain to be done before the theory of progressive development be adopted? Only,' as the candid reader will readily surmise, that the ,. 'J'raite ElemP.ntaire de Palcontologie; · i., 359, 1844. Apud Jameson's Journal, Oct., 1845. 22 |
