PREDECESSORS OF THE HUMAN RACE.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 39, 28 February 1846, Page 4

PREDECESSORS OF THE HUMAN RACE.

In'one of the numbers for 1845 of the North British Review, was published an article upon " The predecessors of the Human Race."* It brings before vi some striking facts and solemn reasoning on the various creations which philosophers suppose to have preceded the formation of man. The Doctor refeis to the memoir read by Cuvier, 1795, at the first sitting ol the national institute, "On the species of fossil elephants, compared with the living species," in which he demonstrates that the fossil elephant differs from all living species, and that it is an extinct species, now lost. He undertook to prove the like with respect to other animals. " May we ask," said he, " why we find so many remains of unknown animals, whilst we can find none which we can rank among the species which we know?— We may see how ptobable it isthat they have all belonged to the beings of a world anterior to ours— to beings destroyed by revolutions of the earth, and to beings which have been replaced by existing species." . Surrounded by the lattice of former creations, .the tasji assigned to, Cuvier, the,, article goes on to state*, mas to restore the fragments to their former portions. By great labour, be succeeded in tracing their connexion, and re-establshed one hundred and sixty eight vertebral animals, which form fifty distinct genera, of which fifteen are entirely new ; and reckoning the additions which have since been made, there is reason to believe that the species of extinct animals are more numerous than the living ones. Bui Cuvier found that the difference of structure between fossil and recent animals increases with the age of the deposits themselves. As the primitive rocks exhibit no traces of plants or animals, he concluded there was a 1 time when no living beings existed upon the earth ; and that l«efore the creation of man, the world was inhabited by at least three different generations of animals, which had been successively created and destroyed. It is supposed with reason if the subject be not too grand for our feeble reason, that the creation of vegetable bodies preceded the creation of the animals that were to devour them. The stately pine, the gigantic equisatecs and the lofty palm, wared in the primeval forests, and the sea and the Und were inhabited only by a small number of the marine mammalia, and scarcely any of the terrestial mammalia. We then arrive at the startling conclusion, that among tlie earliest inhabitants of the globe vrere reptiles of an immense magnitude, the Megalosiutus being upwards of seventy feet long 5 the Ichtlnosaurus, an animal combining the trunk of an ordinary quadruped, with a neck like the body of a serpent, the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile, and the paddles of a whale 5 and the Pterodactyle, the most extraordinary of extinct animals, uniting the character of a biid, a tat, a reptile, a quadruped In the second period the teirestial mammalia increase in number, and we have along with them numerous Paehydermata, or animals with thick skins, Paleotherium and Anopelotherium, and other genera ef aquatic animals, which dwelt on the margin of lakes and river*. In the first of these extinct genera* the species vary in size from the Rhinoceros to the hog. 1 hese and other species, nearly fifty in number were discovered h) Cuvier in the fresh water formations of Montmatre near Paris. In the the third petiod lived the Mammoth, the Mdstoden, the Hippopotamus, and those huge slotlis, the Megatherium and the Megalonix, the giants of the natural world, the grandest and the lust specimens of that extraordinary population over which man never swajed the sceptre, The lion and the tiger are supposed to be the 6ur cewsoi hof the creature last mentioned. Up to this stage, no traces of man, or of his labors, can be detected, and this gives the remarkable results that the three periods have be§n succeeded by a fourth, in which the' Almighty placed man upon the earth, and created as his subjects and his servants, those race* of living beings which occupy the surface of our globe, and who inhabit the depths of our oceans. • The author of this article is supposed to be Dr. Pye Smith.

A dreadful event occurred near Vienna, early in September. Two huurired Italian soldiers, while crossing a ruinous bridge, were precipitated into the river by the bridge giving way an<l everj soul drowned. The officer in command, who %\as slightly in advance, escaped. The disorganised state of Greece has brought into existence a host of piratical craft of every size and riwription which are now inlesting the Archipelago. The Austrian and French Governments have each sent a war steamer against them. The Comforts of ljfk.— None oftbecomforts of this life are pure and nnrningjed. There is something of vanity mixed with all our earthly enjoyment* that causeth vexation of spirit. There is no sensual pleasure but is either purchased by some pain, or attended with it, or ends in it. — Tillotsun. The Owen it es. — The Social Institution in John Street, Tottenham-courl-road, is defunct, like its late prototype in the Blackfriars-road — The building, changed hands last week Its members and finances have been slowly dwindling down till they are considerably in debt. The building, which is very commodious, is now turned into a" Mechanics' lnstitution " It may also be mentioned that the Socialists (about six years since) expended about £30,000 in buying land and building a hall in Hampshire. Harmony Hall the place was called, and the Owenitepi iucipies were there carried out to the fullest extent j thi has frilled likewise, and in a few weeks time f. < will come under the hammer to pay the loans granted at the commencement of the undertaking. •••Standard. The Secret or Great Workers —They are alwd)* tranquil and orderly, and being pos•eised of incessant .activity, they never lose a moment. They apply, their whole mind to .what they are about ; and, like the hand of a watch, they never stop, although their equal movements in the aame way alino&t escape observation.