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TABLE OF THE SUBCLASSES AND ORDERS OF THE MAMMALIA, ACCORDING TO THE

CLASS.

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Gyrencephala......Ungulata

Elephas

Elephant.

PROBOSCIDIA

Dinotherium.

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APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

ON THE EXTINCTION OF SPECIES.

Being the Conclusion of the Fullerian Course of Lectures on
Physiology, for 1859.

IN a Report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, On the Extinct Mammals of Australia, published in the Volume of Reports for 1844, evidence is adduced in proof of the law, that with extinct as with existing mammalia particular forms were assigned to particular provinces, and that the same forms were restricted to the same provinces at a former geological period as they are at the present day. That period, however, was the more recent tertiary one.

In carrying back the retrospective comparison of existing and extinct mammals to those of the eocene and oolitic strata, in relation to their local distribution, we obtain indications of extensive changes in the relative position of sea and land during those epochs, through the degree of incongruity between the generic forms of the mammalia which then existed in Europe, and any that actually exist on the great natural continent of which Europe now forms part. It would seem, indeed, that the further we penetrate into time for the recovery of extinct mammalia, the further we must go into space to find their existing analogues. To match the eocene palæotheres and lophiodons we must bring tapirs from Sumatra or South America; and we must travel to the antipodes for myrmecobians, the nearest living analogue to the amphitheres and spalacotheres of our oolitic strata.

On the problem of the extinction of species I have little to say; and of the more mysterious subject of their coming into being, nothing profitable or to the purpose. As a cause of extinction in times anterior to man, it is most reasonable to assign the chief weight to those gradual changes in the conditions affecting a due supply of sustenance to animals in a state of nature which must have accompanied the slow alternations of land and sea brought

about in the sons of geological time. Yet this reasoning is applicable only to land-animals; for it is scarcely conceivable that such operations can have affected sea-fishes.

There are characters in land-animals rendering them more obnoxious to extirpating influences, which may explain why so many of the larger species of particular groups have become extinct, whilst smaller species of equal antiquity have survived. In proportion to its bulk is the difficulty of the contest which the animal has to maintain against the surrounding agencies that are ever tending to dissolve the vital bond, and subjugate the living matter to the ordinary chemical and physical forces. Any changes, therefore, in such external agencies as a species may have been originally adapted to exist in, will militate against that existence in a degree proportionate to the size which may characterise the species. If a dry season be gradually prolonged, the large mammal will suffer from the drought sooner than the small one; if such alteration of climate affect the quantity of vegetable food, the bulky herbivore will first feel the effects of stinted nourishment; if new enemies be introduced, the large and conspicuous animal will fall a prey while the smaller kinds conceal themselves and escape. Small quadrupeds, moreover, are more prolific than large ones. Those of the bulk of the mastodons, megatheria, glyptodons, and diprotodons, are uniparous. The actual presence, therefore, of small species of animals in countries where larger species of the same natural families formerly existed, is not the consequence of degeneration-of any gradual diminution of the size-of such species, but is the result of circumstances which may be illustrated by the fable of the 'Oak and the Reed;' the smaller and feebler animals have bent and accommodated themselves to changes to which the larger species have succumbed.

That species should become extinct appears, from the abundant evidence of the fact of extinction, to be a law of their existence; whether, however, it be inherent in their own nature, or be relative and dependent on inevitable changes in the conditions and theatre of their existence, is the main subject for consideration. But, admitting extinction as a natural law which has operated from the beginning of life on this planet, it might be expected that some evidence of it should occur in our own time, or within the historical period. Reference has been made to several instances of the extirpation of species, certainly, probably, or possibly, due to the direct agency of man; but this cause avails not in

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