Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/394

374 to his discovery of "natural selection," Darwin was fortunate in having so able and bold an expounder as Huxley, who was one of the first to adopt his theory and give it a vigorous support. Huxley's masterly researches have been of great benefit to all departments of biology, and his contributions to paleontology are invaluable. Among the latter, his original investigations on the relations of birds and reptiles are especially noteworthy. His various memoirs on extinct reptiles, amphibians, and fishes belong to the permanent literature of the subject. The important researches of Owen on the fossil vertebrates have been continued to the present time. He has added largely to his previous publications on the British fossil reptiles, birds, and mammals, the extinct reptiles of South Africa, and the post-Tertiary birds of New Zealand. His description of the Archæopteryx, near the beginning of the period, was a most welcome contribution.

The investigations of Egerton on fossil fishes have likewise been continued with important results. Busk, Dawkins, Flower, and Sanford have made valuable contributions to the history of fossil mammals. Bell, Günther, Hulke, Lankester, Newton, Powrie, Miall, Tracquair, and Seely have made notable additions to our knowledge of reptiles, amphibians, and fishes. Among invertebrates, the Crustacea have been especially studied by Jones, Salter, and Woodward. Davidson, Etheridge, Lycett, Morris, Phillips, Wood, and Wright have continued their researches on the mollusks; Duncan, Nicholson, and others have investigated the extinct corals; and Binney, Carruthers, and Williamson the fossil plants. Numerous other important contributions have been made to the science in Great Britain during the present period.

On the Continent the advance in paleontology has, during the last two decades, been equally great. In France, Gervais continued his memoirs on extinct vertebrates nearly to the present date; while Gaudry has published several volumes on the subject that are models for all students of the science. His work on the fossil animals of Greece is a perfect monograph of its kind, and his later publications are all of importance. Lartet's various works are of permanent value, and his application of paleontology to archaeology brought notable results. The volume of Alphonse Milne-Edwards on fossil Crustacea was a fit supplement to Brongniart and Desmarest's well-known work; while his grand memoir on fossil birds deserves to rank with the classic volumes of Cuvier. Duvernoy, Filhol, Hébert, Sauvage, and others have also published interesting results on fossil vertebrates.

Van Beneden's researches on the fossil vertebrates of Belgium have produced results of great value. Pictet, Rütimeyer, and Wiedersheim in Switzerland; Bianconi, Carnalia, Forsyth-Major, and Sismonda in Italy; and Nodot in Spain, have likewise published important memoirs. The extinct vertebrates have been studied in Germany by Von Meyer, Cams, Fraas, Giebel, Heckel, Haase, Hensel, Kayser,