It may have been, of course, that some of them were worn originally by water; but in time they all found a use when suitable for living monsters.
"This brings us to another point, more difficult to accept and understand than any other requiring belief in a base not usually accepted, or indeed entered on--whether such abnormal growths could have ever changed in their nature.

Some day the study of metabolism may progress so far as to enable us to accept structural changes proceeding from an intellectual or moral base.

We may lean towards a belief that great animal strength may be a sound base for changes of all sorts.

If this be so, what could be a more fitting subject than primeval monsters whose strength was such as to allow a survival of thousands of years?
We do not know yet if brain can increase and develop independently of other parts of the living structure.
"After all, the mediaeval belief in the Philosopher's Stone which could transmute metals, has its counterpart in the accepted theory of metabolism which changes living tissue.

In an age of investigation like our own, when we are returning to science as the base of wonders--almost of miracles--we should be slow to refuse to accept facts, however impossible they may seem to be.
"Let us suppose a monster of the early days of the world--a dragon of the prime--of vast age running into thousands of years, to whom had been conveyed in some way--it matters not--a brain just sufficient for the beginning of growth.