CONTENTS. I The Cause.

Previous

Evidence of the Senses often delusive—Deductions of Reason fallible—Essentials sometimes overlooked—Discrepancy between Scripture and Geological Conclusions—Painful Dilemma—Efforts to escape from it—Supremacy of Truth—Various Attempts at Reconciliation—Denouncers—Opinions of Brown—Blackwood— Macbrair—Ure—Penn—Young—Cockburn—Miller—Sedgwick—Turner—Sumner— Chalmers—Harris—Gray—Conybeare—Hitchcock—Pye Smith—"Protoplast"—Babbage—Powell—"Vestiges"—Amplitude of Choice Page 1-29

II.

The Witness for the Macro-Chronology.

A Court of Inquiry—The Witnesses—Testimony of One—Strata of Thames Tunnel—of Hertfordshire—of Yorkshire—of the Globe—Granite—Granitic Strata—Organic Remains—Silurian System—Corals—Trilobites—Mollusks—Devonian System—Old Red Sandstone—Its Formation—Fishes—Carboniferous System—Coral Limestone—Millstone Grit—Coal—Predominance of Carbonic Acid—Extent and Thickness of Coal-Fields—Formation of Coal—Conjecture as to its Age—Antediluvian Theory untenable—Sauroid Fishes—Earliest Reptiles—Footprints of Frogs 30-53

III.

The Same—(continued.)

Disturbances of Strata—Internal Heat—Changes of Land and Sea—New Red Sandstone—Footprints—Labyrinthodon—Lias Formation—Crinoids—Ammonites—Belemnites—Fishes—Marine Reptiles—Ichthyosaur—Plesiosaur—European Archipelago—Oolitic Formation—Cycads—Megalosaur—Bat-Lizards—Iguanodon—HylÆosaur—Earliest Mammal—Chalk Formation—Infusoria—DiatomaceÆ—Their Minuteness and Numbers—Chambered Cephalopods—Mosasaur—End of Secondary Formations—Convulsions—Basalt—Uprearing of Mountain Chains—London Clay—Plants and Animals—Fishes—Reptiles—Birds—Mammals—Anoplotherium—Condition of Europe—Dinotherium—Mastodon—Mammoth—Trees—Crag Formation—Tertiary Fauna—Bone Caves—Kirkdale—Erratic Blocks—Glaciers—Sloths—Marsupials—Birds—Raised Beaches—Human Period—Moho—Present Cosmical Operations—River Deltas—Coral Beefs—Volcanoes—Changes of Level—Earthy Deposits—Stalagmite—Shells—Recapitulation. 54-101

IV.

The Cross-Examination.

Grandeur of the Evidence—Proposed Line of Objection—It is but circumstantial—Example of Confusion of Thought—Analysis of the Reasoning—-Dependent on the exhaustive Power of Observation—Relation of Precedence and Sequence—Of Cause and Effect—Force of my Position. 102-109

V.

Postulates.

The Creation of Matter—The Persistence of Species. 110-112

VI.

Laws.

The Course of Nature a Circle—Illustrations—Scarlet Runner—Lady-fern— Hawkmoth—Plumularia—Cow—Universality of the Law—Creation an Irruption into a Circle—False Witness to Past Processes—Prochronism and Diachronism—Phenomena illusory—Recapitulation 113-126

VII.

Parallels and Precedents.

(Plants.)

Ideal Tour on Creation-Day—Chronological Investigations—Queried Age of a Tree-fern—Data for the Inquiry—Development of the Leaves—Leaf-scars—Report—Its manifest Error—Selaginella—Bamboo— Couch-grass—Screw-pine—Pashiuba—Sugar Palm—Areca—Rattan—Agave— Traveller's Tree—Butterfly Flower—Orchis—Gladiolus—Grass-tree—White Lily—Testudinaria—Caffer-Bread—Fig—Banyan—Euphorbia—Tulip-tree—Bignonia—Loranthus—Prickly Pear—Mangrove—Silk-cotton-tree—Locust-tree—Restriction of the Inquiry—Uniform Testimony to Untruth 127-181

VIII.

Parallels and Precedents.

(Invertebrate Animals.)

Resumption of the Examination—Sea Pen—Millepore—Madrepore—Organ-pipe— Medusa—Sea-urchin—Feather-star—Tapeworm—Serpula—Terebella—White-ant— Goliath-beetle—Gnat—Case-fly—Melicerta—Julus—Buprestis—Shore-crab— Barnacle—Lepralia—Botryllus—Clavagella—Prickly Venus—Scorpion Stromb—Tiger Cowry—Thorny Murex—Pearly Nautilus—Cuttlefish 182-239

IX.

Parallels and Precedents.

(Vertebrate Animals.)

Examination of the Vertebrata—Sword-fish—Gilt-head—LaminÆ of Scales—Shark—Arrangement of Teeth—Their Structure—Tree-frog— Metamorphosis—Rattlesnake—Crocodile—Tortoise—LaminÆ of Plates—Skull of Cassowary—Peacock—Humming-bird—Trogon—Structure and Growth of Feathers—Whalebone of Whale—Horn of Ibex—Horn of Stag—Teeth of Horse—Of Babiroussa—Of Hippopotamus—Tusk of Elephant—Molars of Elephant 240-273

X.

Parallels and Precedents.

(Man.)

Examination of Primal Man—Blood—Its Formation—Its Oxygenation— Nails—Hair—Bones—Teeth—All formed by successive Processes—Stature—Thyroid Cartilage—Beard—Development of Teeth—Proportion of Bloods—Condition of Skeleton—Navel—False Conclusion 274-291

XI.

Parallels and Precedents.

(Germs.)

Assumption of adult Development at Creation—Its Reasonableness—The Position waived—Assumption of the Germ-Hypothesis—Double Cocoa-nut—Coral Tree—Tulip—Earth-pea—Mangrove—Medusa—Connexion of Germs with Parent—In Echinoderms—In Annelids—In Insects—Egg of Butterfly—Of Nut Weevil—Of Bots—Of Ichneumon—Of Pill Chafer—Of Gall-fly—Of Lace-fly—Of Spider—Of Gipsy Moth—Of Coccus—Of Saw-fly—Of Cockroach—Of Dirt-dauber—Metamorphosis of Star-fish—Eggs attached to Brachionus—Viviparous Progeny of Rotifer—Of Asplanchna—Of Daphnia—Egg-purse of Shark—Economy of Surinam Toad—Egg of Fowl—Foetus of Kangaroo—Umbilicus 292-334

XII.

The Conclusion.

Uniformity of Results—Prochronism of Organic Nature—Phenomena inadequate to settle Chronology—Historic Testimony alone oracular—Familiar Illustration—Objections met—Analogy between an Organism and a World—Illustration from a Tree—Analogy between the Life of a Species and that of an Individual—History Divinely Projected—Grand Plan of Nature—Diachronic Existence not necessary—Deceptive Phenomena inseparable from Created Organisms—Illustrations abundant—Hypothesis of the Life-history of the Globe—Supposition of 1857 being the Era of Creation—What its State?—Minuteness and Verity of Proofs of Life present no Difficulty—Coprolites—FÆcal Residua in newly-created Animals—Cyclical not Organic Condition the Test of Prochronism—Illustrations from the inorganic World—Rivers—Ocean Currents—Celestial Bodies—Velocity of Light—Records of Entities actually passed—"No Tree has Leaves"—Plates of Testudinaria—Leaf-scars of Palm—Column of Nerita—Spines of Murex—Madreporic Plate of Cribella—Hilum of Seed—Navel of Mammal—Argument of "Great and Small"—Old Hypothesis of Lusus NaturÆ—Demonstration of a Law—Effect of this Principle on the Study of Geology—Summing up 335-372


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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