Silk-cotton tree, 174.
Silurian formations, 40.
Skeleton, human, 286.
Skeletons, evidence from, 105, 340.
Sloths, fossil, 82.
Smith, Dr. Pye, opinions of, 22.
Smithia, elegance of, 371.
Species, persistence of, 110.
Spider, eggs of, 313.
Stag, 258.
Star-fish, madreporic plate of, 366.
Stars, light from fixed, 361.
Stature of man, 284.
Strata, disturbances of, 54.
number of, 37.
Strombus, 230.
Sugar-palm, 141.
Sumner, Dr., opinions of, 19.
Surinam toad, 327.
Sword-fish, 240.
Tapeworm, 195.
Tapir, 69.
Teeth of babiroussa, 262.
Teeth of crocodile, 249.
elephant, 268.
hippopotamus, 263.
horse, 261.
man, 281, 285.
shark, 243.
Termes, 203.
Terebella, 201.
Tertiary epoch, 66.
fauna, 76.
Testimony, divine, 2;
dear to many scientific men, 5;
by some rejected, 8.
Testudinaria, 158.
Thames Tunnel, strata of, 32.
Thyroid cartilage, 284.
Timber, rings of, 178, 342, 349.
Tortoise, 250.
Tour of inspection, 127.
Traveller's tree, 148.
Tree-fern, age of, 128.
Tree-frog, 246.
Trilobites, 41.
Truth, value of, 7.
Tulip, seed of, 298.
Tulip-tree, 165.
Turner, Sharon, opinions of, 18.
Tusk of elephant, 266.
Ure, Dr., opinions of, 10.
Venus, prickly, 228.
"Vestiges," hypothesis of, 27, 111.
Volcanic action, 55, 66, 86.
Weevil, economy of, 308.
Whalebone, 255.
White ant, 203.
World, projected history of, 351.
Yorkshire, strata of, 33.
Young, Dr., opinions of, 13.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dr. Lardner; Museum of Science and Art, vol. i. p. 81.
[2] As Cuvier, Buckland, and many others. On the question whether the
phenomena of Geology can be comprised within the short period formerly
assigned to them, the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilts long ago observed:
"Buckland, Sedgwick, Faber, Chalmers, Conybeare, and many other
Christian geologists, strove long with themselves to believe that they
could: and they did not give up the hope, or seek for a new
interpretation of the sacred text, till they considered themselves
driven from their position by such facts as we have stated. If, _even
now, a reasonable, or we might say_ POSSIBLE _solution were offered,
they would_, we feel persuaded, _gladly revert_ to their original
opinion."--_Christian Observer_, August, 1834.
[3] Reflections on Geology.
[4] Geology and Geologists.
[5] New System of Geology.
[6] Mineral and Mosaic Geologies, p. 430.
[7] Geology of Scripture.
[8] Scriptural Geology, _passim._
[9] Letter to Buckland, 15, _et seq._
[10] Origen, Augustine, &c.
[11] Testimony of the Rocks, p. 144
[12] Discourse (5th Ed.), 115.
[13] Sac. Hist. of World.
[14] Rec. of Creation.
[15] Nat. Theology.
[16] Pre-Adamite Earth.
[17] Harmony of Scripture and Geology.
[18] Christian Observer, 1834.
[19] Religion of Geology, Lect. ii.
[20] Scripture and Geology.
[21] I am not _replying_ to any of these conflicting opinions; else,
with respect to this one, I might consider it sufficient to adduce the
_ipsissima verba_ of the inspired text. Not a word is said of Adam's
being "nine hundred and thirty years _old_;" the plain statement is as
follows:--"And _all the days that Adam lived_ were nine hundred and
thirty years." (Gen. v. 5.)
[22] "Protoplast," pp. 58, 59; p. 325; 2d. Ed.
[23] Unity of Worlds (1856), pp. 488, 493.
[24] "A geological truth must command our assent as powerfully as that
of the existence of our own minds, or of the Deity himself; and any
revelation which stands opposed to such truths _must be false_. The
geologist has therefore _nothing to do with revealed religion_ in his
scientific inquiries."--_Edinb. Review_, xv. 16.
[25] Ansted's Ancient World, 18.
[26] Ansted's Ancient World, 30.
[27] Scripture and Geology, 371. (Ed. 1855.)
[28] "It is by no means unlikely that some beds of coal were derived
from the mass of vegetable matter present at one time on the surface,
and submerged suddenly. It is only necessary to refer to the accounts of
vegetation in some of the extremely moist, warm islands in the southern
hemisphere, where the ground is occasionally covered with eight or ten
feet of decaying vegetable matter at one time, to be satisfied that this
is at least possible."
[29] Ansted's Anc. World, 75.
[30] M'Culloch's System of Geology, i. 506.
[31] Origin of Coal.
[32] Testimony of the Rocks, p. 78.
[33] Mr. Newman suggests that they were "marsupial bats" (Zoologist, p.
129). I have adopted his attitudes, but have not ventured to give them
mammalian ears.
[34] In Tennant's "List of Brit. Fossils" (1847), but two species--a
Brachiopod and a Gastropod--are mentioned as common to the Chalk and the
London Clay. They are _Terebratula striatula_, and _Pyrula Smithii_.
[35] Ansted's Anc. World, 267.
[36] Reliquiae Diluvianae.
[37] Travels through the Alps, p. 19.
[38] Prof. Owen, in his admirable account of the _Mylodon_, has
mentioned a fact which brings us very vividly into contact with its
personal history. He shows that the animal got its living by overturning
vast trees, doing the work by main strength, and feeding on the leaves.
The fall of the tree might occasionally put the animal in peril; and in
the specimen examined there is proof of such danger having been
incurred. The skull had undergone two fractures during the life of the
animal, one of which was entirely healed, and the other partially. The
former exhibits the outer tables of bone broken by a fracture four
inches long, near the orbit. The other is more extensive, and behind,
being five inches long, and three broad, and over the brain. The inner
plate had in both these cases defended the brain from any serious
injury, and the animal seems to have been recovering from the latter
accident at the time of its death.
[39] Naturalist's Voyage, _passim_.
[40] The Indians of North America knew that the Mastodon had a trunk; a
fact which (though the anatomist infers it from the bones of the skull)
it is difficult to imagine them to be acquainted with, except by
tradition from those who had seen the living animal.
[41] Ansted; Phys. Geography, 82.
[42] An interesting fact relating to the Brazilian caves was
communicated to Dr. Mantell. "M. Claussen, in the course of his
researches, discovered a cavern, the stalagmite floor of which was
entire. On penetrating the sparry crust, he found the usual ossiferous
bed; but pressing engagements compelled him to leave the deposit
unexplored. After an interval of some years, M. Claussen again visited
the cavern, and found the excavation he had made completely filled up
with stalagmite, the floor being as entire as on his first entrance. On
breaking through this newly-formed incrustation, it was found to be
distinctly marked with lines of dark-coloured sediment, alternating with
the crystalline stalactite. Reasoning on the probable cause of this
appearance, M. Claussen sagaciously concluded that it arose from the
alternation of the wet and dry seasons. During the drought of summer,
the sand and dust of the parched land were wafted into the caves and
fissures, and this earthy layer was covered during the rainy season by
stalagmite, from the water that percolated through the limestone, and
deposited calc-spar on the floor. The number of alternate layers of spar
and sediment tallied with the years that had elapsed since his first
visit; and on breaking up the ancient bed of stalagmite, he found the
same natural register of the annual variations of the seasons; every
layer dug through presented a uniform alternation of sediment and spar;
and as the botanist ascertains the age of an ancient dicotyledonous tree
from the annual circles of growth, in like manner the geologist
attempted to calculate the period that had elapsed since the
commencement of these ossiferous deposits of the cave; and although the
inference, from want of time and means to conduct the inquiry with
precision, can only be accepted as a rough calculation, yet it is
interesting to learn that the time indicated by this natural
chronometer, since the extinct mammalian forms were interred, amounted
to many thousand years."--(_Petrifactions and their Teachings_, p. 481.)
[43] Bibliotheque Univers., March, 1852.
[44] "It is now admitted by all competent persons, that the formation
even of those strata which are _nearest the surface_, must have occupied
vast periods, probably millions of years, in arriving at their present
state."--BABBAGE, _Ninth Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 67.
[45] Geology of Central France.
[46] "Though perfect knowledge is not possessed, yet there are reasons
for believing that the duration of life to testacean individuals of the
present race is several years. But who can state the _proportion_ which
the average length of life to the individual mollusc or conchifer, bears
to the duration appointed by the Creator to the species? Take any one of
the six or seven thousand known recent species; let it be a _Buccinum_,
of which 120 species are ascertained, (one of which is the commonly
known _whelk_;) or a _Cypraea_, comprising about as many, (a well-known
species is on almost every mantel-piece, the _tiger-cowry_;) or an
_Ostrea_ (_oyster_), of which 130 species are described. We have reason
to think that the individuals have a natural life of at least six or
seven years; but we have no reason to suppose that any one species has
died out, since the Adamic creation. May we then, for the sake of an
illustrative argument, take the duration of testacean species, one with
another, at one thousand times the life of the individual? May we say
six thousand years? We are dealing very liberally with our opponents.
Yet in examining the vertical evidences of the cessations of the fossil
species, marks are found of an entire change in the forms of animal
life; we find such cessations and changes to have occurred MANY times in
the thickness of but a few hundred feet of these late-rocks."--DR. J.
PYE SMITH, _Scripture and Geology_, 5th Ed. p. 376.
[47] "One of the laminated formations [in Auvergne] may be said to
furnish a chronometer for itself. It consists of sixty feet of siliceous
and calcareous deposits, each as thin as pasteboard, and bearing upon
their separating surfaces the stems and seed-vessels of small
water-plants in infinite numbers; and countless multitudes of minute
shells, resembling some species of our common snail-shells. These layers
have been formed with evident regularity, and to each of them we may
reasonably assign the term of one season, that is a year. Now thirty of
such layers frequently do not exceed one inch in thickness. Let us
average them at twenty-five. The thickness of the stratum is at least
sixty feet; and thus we gain, for the whole of this formation alone,
eighteen thousand years."--DR. J. P. SMITH, _Scripture and Geology_, 5th
Edition, p. 137.
[48] "This fact has now been verified in almost all parts of the globe,
and has led to a conviction that at successive periods of the past the
same area of land and water has been inhabited by species of animals and
plants as distinct as those which now people the antipodes, or which now
co-exist in the arctic, temperate, and tropical zones. It appears that
from the remotest periods there has been ever a coming in of new organic
forms, and an extinction of those which pre-existed on the earth; some
species having endured for a longer, others for a shorter time; but none
having ever re-appeared, after once dying out."--LYELL'S _Elements of
Geology_, p. 275.
[49] J. Pye Smith, Scripture and Geology, 5th Ed., p. 69.
[50] In Dr. Pye Smith's Scripture and Geology, p. 382, (Ed. 1855.)
[51] I would venture respectfully to suggest that the following argument
by Mr. Babbage is vitiated throughout by a confounding of the phenomena
observed with the conclusions inferred from them.
"What, then, have those accomplished, who have restricted
the Mosaic account of the creation to that diminutive
period, which is, as it were, but a span in the duration of
the earth's existence, and who have imprudently rejected
_the testimony of the senses_, when opposed to their
philological criticisms? The very arguments which
Protestants have opposed to the doctrine of
transubstantiation, would, if their view of the case were
correct, be equally irresistible against the Book of
Genesis. But let us consider what would be the conclusion of
any reasonable being in a parallel case. Let us imagine a
manuscript written three thousand years ago, and professing
to be a revelation from the Deity, in which it was stated
that the colour of the paper of the very book now in the
reader's hands is _black_, and that the colour of the ink in
the characters which he is now reading is _white_. With that
reasonable doubt of his own individual faculties which would
become the inquirer into the truth of a statement said to be
derived from so high an origin, he would ask all those
around him, whether to their senses the paper appeared to be
_black_, and the ink to be _white_. If he found the senses
of other individuals agree with his own, then he would
undoubtedly pronounce the alleged revelation a forgery, and
those who propounded it to be either deceived or
deceivers."--_Ninth Bridgewater Treatise_, p. 68.
[52] Dr. Pye Smith calls the hypothesis of progressive development "the
crude impertinence of a few foreign sophists,"--and he states as a fact,
"that all the great geologists repudiate such a notion with abhorrence,
and give physical evidence of its falsehood."--_Scripture and Geology_,
(5th Ed.) p. 420. See also Professor Owen in "Rep. Brit Assoc." 1842;
Professor Sedgwick, in "Discourse on Stud. of Camb.;" Professor Whewell,
in "Hist. of Inductive Sciences;" Professor Ansted, in "Anc. World;" &c.
[53] Wallace's "Palms of the Amazon," p. 35.
[54] Roxburgh.
[55] Rumph, v. 100.
[56] My observations rest on the fine specimen of this plant preserved
in the British Museum. Dr. Harvey, however, says, "The growth of the
trunk in _Kingia_ is very slow, and a specimen about ten feet high may
probably be some hundreds of years old." Report of Dubl. Univ. Zool. and
Bot. Assoc. for Feb. 25, 1857. See the note _infra_ on page 188.
[57] Gaudichaud: Recherches Gen. sur l'Organographie, p. 129.
[58] On the development of _Loranthus_, &c. Linn. Tr. xviii p. 71,
(_abridged_).
[59] "Each and every plant is at first a cell."--"New cells can never be
formed externally to, but only within, other cells already formed." (A.
Braun, on the Veg. Indiv.)
"The process of the propagation of cells, by the formation of new cells
in their interior, is an universal law in the vegetable kingdom."
(Schleiden; Grundzuege).
"Cell-formation in plants takes place only in the cavities of older
cells." (Mohl, on the Veg. Cell)
[60] See Von Martius, on the Brazilian Locusts.
[61] The origin of coral-stocks is minutely described by Ehrenberg, in
the Abhandl. for 1832, where he makes the following remarks:--"The coral
mass is neither a mere structure composed of many animals arbitrarily
conjoined, as Ellis supposed; nor one single animal with many heads, or
with simple furcations, as Cavolini maintained; nor a vegetable stem
with animal flowers, as Linnaeus expressed it; it is a body of families,
a _living_ tree of consanguinity; the single animals belonging to it,
and continually developing _upon the primary ancestor_, are entirely
isolated within themselves, and capable of complete independence,
_although unable to achieve it_."
[62] This is not quite in accord with Lamouroux's account; but it is
more consistent with what we know of polype-growth.
[63] We lack precise data on which to found conclusions as to the actual
rate of growth of many animals. Sir John Dalyell's famous Actinia, now
in the possession of Dr. Fleming, affords us a proof that the Zoophytes
are long-lived, and slow in attaining maturity. It will be readily seen,
however, that the argument in the text does not depend on the actual
period evolved. The lapse of _a_ period of time, no matter how long, is
the only essential point.
[64] "All the component cells of any one organism may be considered as
the descendants of the primordial cell in which it originated." (_Dr.
Carpenter_; Comp. Physiol.; p. 396. 4th Ed.)
[65] I conclude so; because I have kept specimens of _Echinus_, not full
grown, in healthy condition, for nearly a year, without any perceptible
increase in their dimensions.
[66] I am not aware that this stage of the Entozoon has been actually
observed; but from what we know of its previous and subsequent history,
the correctness of the statement in the text will scarcely be disputed.
(See Prof. Owen: Comp. Anat. of Inverteb. Ed. 2. p. 74.)
[67] See Notes to "Marmion."
[68] Report on Brit. Annelida, p. 194.
[69] We have no direct observations, that I am aware of, on the larval
state of the African _Goliathi_; but their near ally, the _Cetonia
aurata_ of Europe, passes four years in the grub condition, as does also
the _Melolontha vulgaris_, another lamellicorn beetle. The _Lucanus
cervus_, or Stag-beetle, continues a larva for six years.
[70] Fabre; Ann. d. Sci. Nat.; iii. 1855.
[71] _B. splendida_, has been ascertained to have existed, as an inmate
of the wood of a table, for _more than twenty_ years. (Linn. Trans.; x.
399.)
[72] The rate of increase in dimensions shown by specimens of this
species, now so frequently kept in Aquaria, warrants this assertion;
though _how many_ years a Crab takes to attain adult size, no exact
observations, so far as I know, testify.
[73] The exuvia of the cirri are sloughed from the _Balanidae_ about
every week in summer; and perhaps this process is coetaneous with an
addition to the valves.
[74] Mr. Broderip supposes it to have had the power of swimming freely,
and of seeking its future habitation, _as a bivalve_; but Loven had not
then made known to us the embryogeny and metamorphosis of the
_Conchifera_. It is much more probable that the case is as I have
ventured to assume in the text.
[75] Bennett.
[76] Rumphius.
[77] The periodical formation of these septa in the progress of growth,
is analogous to that of the projecting external plates in the
Wendletrap, and of the rows of spines in the _Murex_; but those external
processes consist of the opake calcareous layer of the shell, whilst the
internal processes in the _Nautilus_ consist of the nacreous layer, like
the septa in the _Turritella_. Thus the embryo _Nautilus_ at first
inhabits a simple shell, like that of most univalve Mollusca, and
manifests, according to the usual law, the general type at the early
stage of its existence; although it soon begins, and apparently before
having quitted the ovum, to take on the special form.--Prof. Owen's
_Lect. on Invertebrate Anim._ p. 593, 2d Ed.
[78] Woodward's "Manual of the Mollusca," p. 83.
[79] Carpenter, on the Microscope, &c., p. 602.
[80] Grant's Comp. Anat., 53.
[81] See Jones's General Outline, p. 506. (Ed. 1841.)
[82] Such is the common statement. Dr. Harlan, however, observes that
"the rattle is cast annually [with the sloughed skin], and,
_consequently_, no inference as to the age of the animal can be drawn
from the number of pieces which compose the rattles." (_Journ. Acad.
Nat. Sci._; v. 368.) I confess this appears to me to be a _non
sequitur_; for is it not quite possible that one may be added to the
_number_ annually, without involving the actual perpetuity of the
preceding ones? It is evident that the increase must take place at some
time or other, and it seems to me more likely to occur at the sloughing
of the skin, that is, annually, than either oftener or seldomer.
[83] Martin "On the Horse," p. 111.
[84] Professor Owen's "Odontography:"--to which splendid work I am
indebted, for the engravings of these skulls.
[85] Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.
[86] Owen's Odontogr. p. 631.
[87] Penny Cyclopaedia; _art._ BONE.
[88] Dr. Carpenter's Human Physiol. p. 916. (Ed. 1855.)
[89] Sir Thomas Browne, indeed, denies Adam a navel; I presume, however,
physiologists will rather take my view. Sir Thomas did not know that the
prochronism which he thought absurd pervaded every part of organic
structure. The following is his verdict:--
"Another Mistake there may be in the Picture of our first Parents, who
after the manner of theyre Posteritie are bothe delineated with a
Navill: and this is observable not only in ordinarie and stayned peeces,
but in the Authenticke Draughts of Vrbin, Angelo, and others. Which,
notwythstandynge, cannot be allowed, except wee impute that vnto the
first Cause, which we impose not on the second; or what wee deny vnto
Nature, wee impute vnto Naturity it selfe; that is, that in the first
and moste accomplyshed Peece, the Creator affected Superfluities, or
ordayned Parts withoute all Vse or Offyce."--_Pseudodoxia Epidemica_,
lib. v.; cap. v.
[90] Blackwood, in an excellent article on Johnston's _Physical
Geography_ (April, 1849), says:--"Adam _must_ have been created in the
full possession of manhood; for if he had been formed an infant, he must
have perished through mere helplessness. When God looked on this world,
and pronounced all to be 'very good,'--which implies the completion of
his purpose, and the perfection of his work--is it possible to conceive
that he looked only on the germs of production, on plains covered with
eggs, or seas filled with spawn, or forests still buried in the capsules
of seeds; on a creation utterly shapeless, lifeless and silent, instead
of the myriads of delighted existence, all enjoying the first sense of
being?"
And an eminent Geologist considers the position indisputable, as regards
man:--"To the slightest rational consideration it must be evident, that
the first human pair were created in the perfection of their bodily
organs and mental powers."--(Dr. J. P. Smith; "Script. and Geol.;" 219.)
[91] Gen. i. 12, 21, 26, 27.
[92] Penny Cyclop.; _art._ ARACHIS.
[93] Linn. Trans. iii. 23.
[94] Introd. to Entom.; Lett. xi. Sec. 2.
[95] Jones; Nat. Hist. Anim.; ii. 151.
[96] Cf. Mr. Lubbock (Proc. Roy. Soc. viii. 354), with Dr. Baird (Brit
Entomostr. p. 82).
[97] Dr. Carpenter: Comp. Phys.; p. 615.
[98] Dr. Alex. Braun, "On the Veget. Individual." (Ann. N. H. Nov.
1855.)
[99] It may be objected that _Elephas primigenius_ is absolutely
distinct from _E. Indicus_. I answer, Yes, _specifically_ distinct; and
so am I distinct from my father,--_individually_ distinct. But as
individual distinctness does not preclude the individual from being the
exponent of a circular revolution in the life-history of the species, so
specific distinctness may not preclude the species from being the
exponent of a circular revolution in some higher, unnamed, life-history.
[100] "We may assert of the individual, as well as of the species, that
it completes the cycle of its existence in a succession of subordinate
generations; while, on the other hand, we may affirm of the species,
that, like the individual, it exhibits a determinate cycle of
development." "The species itself may be regarded as an inferior
'momentum' of a still more comprehensive cycle of development."--_Dr. A.
Braun_, "_On the Vegetable Individual._"
"The species is an individual of a higher rank."--_Link: Elements of
Botanical Science_, vi. 11.
"Species, like individuals, have a certain limited term of existence. It
is the fact, that, _according to some general law_, species of animals
are introduced, last for a limited period, and are then succeeded by
others performing the same office."--_Ansted's Ancient World_, 52, 54.