And if we have no knowledge of the physiological importance of
the bones themselves, it is obviously absurd to pretend that we
are able to give physiological reasons why the presence of these
bones is associated with certain peculiarities of the teeth and
of the jaws. If any one knows why four molar teeth and an
inflected angle of the jaw are very generally found along with
marsupial bones, he has not yet communicated that knowledge to
the world.
If, however, Zadig was right in concluding from the likeness of
the hoof-prints which he observed to be a horse's that the
creature which made them had a tail like that of a horse,
Cuvier, seeing that the teeth and jaw of his fossil were just
like those of an opossum, had the same right to conclude that
the pelvis would also be like an opossum's; and so strong was
his conviction that this retrospective prophecy, about an animal
which he had never seen before, and which had been dead and
buried for millions of years, would be verified, that he went to
work upon the slab which contained the pelvis in confident
expectation of finding and laying bare the "marsupial bones," to
the satisfaction of some persons whom he had invited to witness
their disinterment. As he says:--"Cette operation se fit en
presence de quelques personnes a qui j'en avais annonce d'avance
le resultat, dans l'intention de leur prouver par le fait la
justice de nos theories zoologiques; puisque le vrai cachet
d'une theorie est sans contredit la faculte qu'elle donne de
prevoir les phenomenes.
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