The extinction of these races will remind many readers of a
theory on which it is advisable to say a word. It will be
remembered that the last of the Deinosaurs and the Ammonites also
exhibited some remarkable developments in their last days. These
facts have suggested to some writers the idea that expiring races
pass through a death-agony, and seem to die a natural death of
old age like individuals. The Trilobites are quoted as another
instance; and some ingenious writers add the supposed
eccentricities of the Roman Empire in its senile decay and a
number of other equally unsubstantial illustrations.
There is not the least ground for this fantastic speculation. The
destruction of these "doomed races" is as clearly traceable to
external causes as is the destruction of the Roman Empire; nor,
in fact, did the Roman Empire develop any such eccentricities as
are imagined in this superficial theory. What seem to our eye the
"eccentricities" and "convulsions" of the Ceratopsia and
Deinocerata are much more likely to be defensive developments
against a growing peril, but they were as futile against the new
carnivores as were the assegais of the Zulus against the
European.
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