Page:The Depths of the Sea - Wyville - 1873.djvu/38

6 to the distribution of marine forms. The remainder of the book is a continuation by his friend Mr. Godwin Austen, for before it was finished an early death had cut short the career of the most accomplished and original naturalist of his time.

I will give a brief sketch of the general results to which Forbes was led by his labours, and I shall have to point out hereafter, that although we are now inclined to look somewhat differently on certain very fundamental points, and although recent investigations with better appliances and more extended experience have invalidated many of his conclusions, to Forbes is due the credit of having been the first to treat these questions in a broad philosophical sense, and to point out that the only means of acquiring a true knowledge of the rationale of the distribution of our present fauna, is to make ourselves acquainted with its history, to connect the present with the past. This is the direction which must be taken by future inquiry. Forbes, as a pioneer in this line of research, was scarcely in a position to appreciate the full value of his work. Every year adds enormously to our stock of data, and every new fact indicates more clearly the brilliant results which are to be obtained by following his methods, and by emulating his enthusiasm and his indefatigable industry.

Forbes believed implicitly, along with nearly all the leading naturalists of his time, in the immutability of species. He says (Natural History of the British Seas, p. 8), "Every true species presents in its individuals, certain features, specific characters, which distinguish it from every other species; as if the Creator had set an exclusive mark or seal on each