Geological Thought and Teaching

Abstract

HUXLEY'S services to geology were mainly through his palaeontological work, both, in his original research and in his critical review of the work of others, largely with a view of testing its bearing on evolution. As he said on one occasion, “the sole direct and irrefragable evidence of the method whereby living things have become what they are is to be sought among fossil remains.” Like Darwin, he was somewhat disappointed by the want of definiteness of some of this evidence, but, on the other hand, he was able to show that among certain types of life, phylogenetic chains could be made out. His faith in geological evidence is shown by his separation of the Elgin Sandstones from the Old Red Sandstone with which they had been formerly classed, and the placing of them in the New Red Sandstone division on the faith of their fossil reptilian remains.