Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon].

  • Robert Chambers
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vestiges of the natural history of creation / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more of these groups. And for this idea there is, even in the present imperfect state of our know- ledge of animated nature, some countenance in ascertained facts, the birds of Australia, for ex- ample, being chiefly of the suctorial type, while it may be presumed that the observation as to the predominance of the useful animals in the Old World, is not much different from saying that the rasorial type is there peculiarly abundant. It should not escape notice that, if it shall be proved that there are detached lines of progress, that these were isolated in different regions of the earth, and yet the succession of beings was the same in each, as far, at least, as classes and orders are concerned, we shall be furnished with one of the most power- ful proofs of design or pre-arrangement that could be imagined. It does not appear that the idea of independent lines, consisting of particular types, or sets of types, is necessarily inconsistent with the general hypothesis, as nothing yet ascertained of the Macleay system forbids their having an inde- pendent set of affinities. On this subject, however, there is as yet much obscurity, and it must be left to future inquirers to clear it up. We must now call to mind that the geographical distribution of plants and animals was very different
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