Annual of Scientific Discovery, or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1866 and 1867 (Classic Reprint): Exhibiting the Most Important ... Astronomy, Geology, Zoölogy, Botany, Mineralo - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from Annual of Scientific Discovery, or Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art for 1866 and 1867: Exhibiting the Most Important Discoveries and Improvements in Mechanics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology, Zoölogy, Botany, Mineralogy, Meteorology, Geography, Antiquities, Etc

The old theories of geological convulsions and cataclysms by which the inequalities of the earth's surface and the many breaks in the geological record were explained, are now supplanted by the modern view of Lyell and others, which refers the changes in the past to causes similar to those now in operation. With this, since the researches of Darwin, has become connected the ques tion, whether, in a geological formation unmistakably continu ous, the different characters of the fossils represent absolutely permanent varieties, or may be explained by gradual modifying changes. It is quite possible that many modifications of size and form, regarded as permanent, and on which Specific differences have been assumed, may' be due to changes in the conditions of existence. The opponents of Darwin's theory have a strong point in the fact that, with the present knowledge of fossil forms, the physical breaks in the strata make it impossible to fairly trace the order of succession of organisms; but, notwithstanding the imper fection of the geological record, the belief widely prevails among geologists that the succession of species bears a definite relation to the succession of strata.

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