Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation |
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abundant admitted advance affinity America amongst animal kingdom Annelides appear become beds belemnite birds body Brachiopods called carboniferous carnivorous cephalopoda character civilization commencement connexion creation creatures cretaceous crinoidea crinoids crustacea Devonian distinct early earth echinodermata embryo eocene example existence external fact faculties favour feet fishes formation fossils gasteropods genera genus geological geologists globe grade habits herbivorous higher human hypothesis Ichthyosaur idea inferior insects instances invertebrate kind language living Lower Silurian mammalia manner marine matter ment mind mollusks naturalists nature observed oolite organic origin Paleozoic pass peculiar period Permian phenomena plants portion present produced Professor regard regions remains remarkable reptiles resemblance respect rocks sandstone saurian says Sedgwick seen shells species stirps strata structure superior supposed surface teeth terrestrial terrestrial animals tertiary thecodonts tion trace tribes Trilobites vegetable vertebral column vertebrate whole
Popular passages
Page lxxiii - ... the simplest and most primitive type, under a law to which that of like-production is subordinate, gave birth to the type next above it, that this again produced the next higher, and so on to the very highest...
Page 421 - A law presupposes an agent; for it is only the mode, according to which an agent proceeds: it implies a power; for it is the order, according to which that power acts. Without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself, the law does nothing; is nothing. The expression, "the law of metallic nature...
Page 12 - The resemblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness ; they are bound up in one chain — interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious agreement, subjected to one pervading influence which extends from the centre to the farthest limits of that great system, of which all of them, the Earth included, must henceforth be regarded as members...
Page 201 - The proposition determined on after much consideration is, that the several series of animated beings, from the simplest and oldest up to the highest and most recent...
Page 421 - White-fish, before mentioned, (306,) are two very different fishes ; yet, taking into consideration their external form and bearing merely, it might be questioned which of the two should take the highest rank; whereas the doubt is very easily resolved by an examination of their anatomical structure. The White-fish has a skeleton, and, moreover, a vertebral column, composed of firm bone. The Sturgeon, (Fig.
Page 375 - If mental action is electric, the proverbial quickness of thought —that is, the quickness of the transmission of sensation and will— may be presumed to have been brought to an exact measurement.
Page 6 - ... announcements which they shall have to communicate, — that there are yet behind, to search out and to declare, not only secrets of nature which shall increase the wealth or power of man, but TRUTHS which shall ennoble the age and the country in which they are divulged, and by dilating the intellect, react on the moral character of mankind.
Page 336 - The style of living is ascertained to have a powerful effect in modifying the human figure in the course of generations, and this even in its osseous structure. About two hundred years ago, a number of people were driven by a barbarous policy from the counties of Antrim and Down, in Ireland, towards the sea-coast, where they have ever since been settled, but in unusually miserable circumstances, even for Ireland ; and the consequence is, that they exhibit peculiar features of the most repulsive kind,...
Page 201 - ... terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, and generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; second, of another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the course of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric agencies, these being the 'adaptations
Page 421 - ... in the speculation respecting the igneous origin of trap or granite, the fact does not admit of direct proof, that those substances have been actually subjected to intense heat. But the same thing might be said of all judicial inquiries which proceed upon circumstantial evidence. We can conclude that a man was murdered, although it is not proved by the testimony of eyewitnesses that a man who had the intention of murdering him was present on the spot. It is enough if no other known cause could...