Lescarbault's alleged observation of March 26, 1859, is contradicted by M. Liais, in No. 1248 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. The latter states that on that day he was observing, with a view of determining the relative intensities of the different parts of the disc, at San Domingos, in the Bay of Rio Janeiro, from 11h 4m to 11h 20m, and from 12h 42m to 1h 17m S. Dom. mean solar time. Allowing three hours for difference of longitude, the ingress of the spot should have been at 1h 5m at St. Domingo. At 1h 17m the spot should accordingly have been on the sun's disc for twelve minutes and would in that time have traversed an arc of 1' 4. M. Liais asserts he must have seen such a spot had it been there. He shows further that such a planet as the one supposed would be easily seen during a large part of its orbit, by the telescope, and often by the naked eye of an observer within the tropics. As the planet has not been thus seen he does not believe it to exist.

V. BOOK NOTICES.

PROF. AGASSIZ ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

1. Contributions to the Natural History of the United States; by L. AGASSIZ.-The third volume of this work, now in the press, will appear shortly. We copy from the advance sheets the following paragraphs relating to the origin of species, which has lately attracted much attention, in consequence of the publication of Darwin's book on that subject.

Individuality and Specific Differences among Acalephs.

The morphological phenomena discussed in the preceding section naturally lead to a consideration of individuality and of the extent and importance of specific differences among the Acalephs. A few years ago the prevailing opinion among naturalists was that, while genera, families, orders, classes, and any other more or less comprehensive divisions among animals were artificial devices of science to facilitate our studies, species alone had a real existence in nature. Whether the views I have presented in the first volume of this work (p. 163), where I showed that species do not exist in any different sense from genera, families, etc., have had any thing to do with the change which seems to have been brought about upon this point among scientific men, is not for me to say; but whatever be the cause, it is certainly true that, at the present day, the number of naturalists who deny the real existence of species is greatly increased. Darwin in his recent work on the "Origin of Species," has also done much to shake the belief in the real existence of species, but the views he advocates are entirely at variance with those I have attempted to establish. For many years past I have lost no opportunity of urging the idea that while species have no material existence, they yet exist as categories of thought, in the same way as genera, families,, orders, classes, and branches of the animal kingdom. Darwin's fundamental idea, on the contrary, is that species, genera, families, orders, classes, and any other kind of more or less comprehensive divisions among animals do not exist at all, and are altogether artificial, differing from one another only in degree, all having originated from a successive differentiation of a primordial organic form, undergoing successively such changes as would

at first produce a variety of species; then genera, as the difference became more extensive and deeper; then families, as the gap widened still farther between the groups, until in the end all that diversity was produced which has existed or exists now. Far from agreeing with these views, I have, on the contrary, taken the ground that all the natural divisions in the animal kingdom are primarily distinct, founded upon different categories of characters, and that all exist in the same way, that is, as categories of thought, embodied in individual living forms. I have attempted to show that branches in the animal kingdom are founded upon different plans of structure, and for that very reason have embraced from the beginning representatives between which there could be no community of origin; that classes are founded upon different modes of execution of these plans, and therefore they also embrace representatives which could have no community of origin; that orders represent the different degrees. of complication in the mode of execution of each class, and therefore embrace representatives which could not have a community of origin any more than the members of different classes or branches; that families are founded upon different patterns of form, and embrace representatives equally independent in their origin; that genera are founded upon ultimate peculiarities of structure, embracing representatives, which, from the very nature of their peculiarities could have no community of origin; and that finally, species are based upon relations and proportions that exclude, as much as all the preceding distinctions, the idea of a common descent.

As the community of characters among the beings belonging to these different categories arises from the intellectual connection which shows them to be categories of thought, they cannot be the result of a gradual material differentiation of the objects themselves. The argument on which these views are founded may be summed up in the following few words: Species, genera, families, &c. exist as thoughts, individuals as facts. It is presented at full length in the first volume of this work, (p. 137-168), where I have shown that individuals alone have a definite material existence, and that they are, for the time being, the bearers not only of specific characteristics, but of all the natural features in which animal life is displayed in all its diversity; individuality being, in fact, the great mystery of organic life.>

Since the arguments presented by Darwin in favor of a universal derivation from one primary form, of all the peculiarities existing now among living beings have not made the slightest impression on my mind, nor modified in any way the views I have already propounded, I may fairly refer the reader to the paragraphs alluded to above as containing sufficient evidence of their correctness, and I will here only add a single argument, which seems to leave the question where I have placed it.

It seems to me that there is much confusion of ideas in the general statement of the variability of species so often repeated lately. If species do not exist at all, as the supporters of the transmutation theory maintain, how can they vary? and if individuals alone exist, how can the differences which may be observed among them prove the variability of species? The fact seems to me to be that while species are based upon definite relations among individuals which differ in various ways among themselves,

each individual, as a distinct being, has a definite course to run from the time of its first formation to the end of its existence, during which it never loses its identity nor changes its individuality, nor its relations to other individuals belonging to the same species, but preserves all the categories of relationship which constitute specific or generic or family affinity, or any other kind or degree of affinity. To prove that species vary it should be proved that individuals born from common ancestors change the different categories of relationship which they bore primitively to one another. While all that has thus far been shown is, that there exists a considerable difference among individuals of one and the same species. This may be new to those who have looked upon every individual picked up at random, as affording the means of describing satisfactorily any species; but no naturalist who has studied carefully any of the species now best known, can have failed to perceive that it requires extensive series of specimens accurately to describe a species, and that the more complete such series are, the more precise appear the limits which separate species. Surely the aim of science cannot be to furnish amateur zoologists or collectors, a recipe for a ready identification of any chance specimen that may fall into their hands. And the difficulties with which we may meet in attempting to characterize species do not afford the first indication that species do not exist at all, as long as most of them can be distinguished, as such, almost at first sight. I foresee that some convert to the transmutation creed will at once object that the facility with which species may be distinguished is no evidence that they were not derived from other species. It may be so. But as long as no fact is adduced to show that any one well known species among the many thousands that are buried in the whole series of fossiliferous rocks, is actually the parent of any one of the species now living, such arguments can have no weight; and thus far the supporters of the transmutation theory have failed to produce any such facts. Instead of facts we are treated with marvelous bear, cuckoo, and other stories. Credat Judaeus Apella!

Had Mr. Darwin or his followers furnished a single fact to show that individuals change, in the course of time, in such a manner as to produce at last species different from those known before, the state of the case might be different. But it stands recorded now as before, that the animals known to the ancients are still in existence, exhibiting to this day the characters they exhibited of old. The geological record, even with all its imperfections, exaggerated to distortion, tells now, what it has told from the beginning, that the supposed intermediate forms between the species of different geological periods are imaginary beings, called up merely in support of a fanciful theory. The origin of all the diversity among living beings remains a mystery as totally unexplained as if the book of Mr. Darwin had never been written, for no theory unsupported by fact, however plausible it may appear, can be admitted in science.

It seems generally admitted that the work of Darwin is particularly remarkable for the fairness with which he presents the facts adverse to his views. It may be so; but I confess that it has made a very different impression upon me. I have been more forcibly struck by his inability to perceive when the facts are fatal to his argument, than by anything else in the whole work. His chapter on the Geological Record, in par

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ticular, appears to me, from beginning to end, as a series of illogical deductions and misrepresentations of the modern results of Geology and Palæontology. I do not intend to argue here, one by one, the questions he has discussed. Such arguments end too often in special pleading, and any one familiar with the subject may readily perceive where the truth lies by confronting his assertions with the geological record itself. But since the question at issue is chiefly to be settled by paleontological evidence, and I have devoted the greater part of my life to the special study of the fossils, I wish to record my protest against his mode of treating this part of the subject. Not only does Darwin never perceive when the facts are fatal to his views, but when he has succeeded by an ingenious circumlocution in overleaping the facts, he would have us believe that he has lessened their importance or changed their meaning. would thus have us believe that there have been periods during which all that had taken place during other periods was destroyed, and this solely to explain the absence of intermediate forms between the fossils found in successive deposits, for the origin of which he looks to those missing links; whilst every recent progress in Geology shows more and more fully how gradual and successive all the deposits have been which form the crust of our earth.-He would have us believe that entire faunæ have disappeared before those were preserved, the remains of which are found in the lowest fossiliferous strata; when we find everywhere nonfossiliferous strata below those that contain the oldest fossils now known. It is true, he explains their absence by the supposition that they were too delicate to be preserved; but any animals from which Crinoids, Brachiopods, Cephalopods, and Trilobites could arise, must have been sufficiently similar to them to have left, at least, traces of their presence in the lowest non-fossiliferous rocks, had they ever existed at all.-He would have us believe that the oldest organisms that existed were simple cells, or something like the lowest living beings now in existence; when such highly organized animals as Trilobites and Orthoceratites are among the oldest known. He would have us believe that these lowest first-born became extinct in consequence of the gradual advantage some of their more favored descendants gained over the majority of their predecessors; when there exist now, and have existed at all periods in past history, as large a proportion of more simply organized beings, as of more favored types, and when such types as Lingula were among the lowest Silurian fossils, and are alive at the present day. He would have us believe that each new species originated in consequence of some slight change in those that preceded; when every geological formation teems with types that did not exist before.-He would have us believe that animals and plants became gradually more and more numerous; when most species appear in myriads of individuals, in the first bed in which they are found. He would have us believe that animals disappear gradually; when they are as common in the uppermost bed in which they occur as in the lowest, or any intermediate bed. Species appear suddenly and disappear suddenly in successive strata. That is the fact proclaimed by Paleontology; they neither increase successively in number, nor do they gradually dwindle down; none of the fossil remains thus far observed show signs of a gradual improvement or of a slow decay.-He would have us believe that SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXX, No. 88.—JULY, 1860. ̧

geological deposits took place during the periods of subsidence; when it can be proved that the whole continent of North America is formed of beds which were deposited during a series of successive upheavals. I quote North America in preference to any other part of the world, because the evidence is so complete here that it can only be overlooked by those who may mistake subsidence for the general shrinkage of the earth's surface in consequence of the cooling of its mass. In this part of the globe, fossils are as common along the successive shores of the rising deposits of the Silurian system, as anywhere along our beaches; and and each of these successive shores extends from the Atlantic States to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The evidence goes even further; each of these successive sets of beds of the Silurian system contains peculiar fossils, neither found in the beds above nor in the beds below, and between them there are no intermediate forms. And yet Darwin affirms that "the littoral and sub-littoral deposits are continually worn away, as soon as they are brought up by the slow and gradual rising of the land within the grinding action of the coast waves." Origin of Species, p. 290.-He would also have us believe that the most perfect organs of the body of animals are the product of gradual improvement, when eyes as perfect as those of the Trilobites are preserved with the remains of these oldest animals. He would have us believe that it required millions of years to effect any one of these changes; when far more extraordinary transformations are daily going on, under our eyes, in the shortest periods of time, during the growth of animals.-He would have us believe that animals acquire their instincts gradually; when even those that never see their parents, perform at birth the same acts, in the same way, as their progenitors. He would have us believe that the geographical distribution of animals is the result of accidental transfers; when most species are so narrowly confined within the limits of their natural range, that even slight changes in their external relations may cause their death. And all these, and many other calls upon our credulity, are coolly made in the face of an amount of precise information, readily accessible, which would overwhelm any one who does not place his opinions above the records of an age eminently characterized for its industry, and during which, that information was laboriously accumulated by crowds of faithful laborers.

It would be superfluous to discuss in detail the arguments by which Mr. Darwin attempts to explain the diversity among animals. Suffice it to say, that he has lost sight of the most striking of the features, and the one which pervades the whole, namely, that there runs throughout Nature unmistakable evidence of thought, corresponding to the mental operations of our own mind, and therefore intelligible to us as thinking beings, and unaccountable on any other basis than that they owe their existence to the working of intelligence; and no theory that overlooks this element can be true to nature.

There are naturalists who seem to look upon the idea of creation, that is, a manifestation of an intellectual power by material means, as a kind of bigotry; forgetting, no doubt, that whenever they carry out a thought of their own, they do something akin to creating, unless they look upon their own elucubrations as something in which their individuality is not concerned, but arising without an intervention of their mind, in conse