quence of the working of some "bundles of forces," about which they know nothing themselves. And yet such men are ready to admit that matter is omnipotent, and consider a disbelief in the omnipotence of matter as tantamout to imbecility; for, what is the assumed power of matter to produce all finite beings, but omnipotence? And what is the outcry raised against those who cannot admit it, but an insinuation that they are noncompos? The book of Mr. Darwin is free of all such uncharitable sentiments towards his fellow-laborers in the field of science; nevertheless his mistake lies in a similar assumption that the most complicated system of combined thoughts can be the result of accidental causes; for he ought to know, as every physicist will concede, that all the influences to which he would ascribe the origin of species are accidental in their very nature, and he must know, as every naturalist familiar with the modern progress of science does know, that the organized beings which live now, and have lived in former geological periods, constitute an organic whole, intelligibly and methodically combined in all its parts. As a zoologist he must know in particular, that the animal kingdom is built upon four different plans of structure, and that the reproduction and growth of animals takes place according to four different modes of development, and that unless it is shown that these four plans of structure, and these four modes of development, are transmutable one into the other, no transmutation theory can account for the origin of species. The fallacy of Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin of species by means of natural selection, may be traced in the first few pages of his book, where he overlooks the difference between the voluntary and deliberate acts of selection applied methodically by man to the breeding of domesticated animals and the growing of cultivated plants, and the chance influences which may effect animals and plants in the state of nature. To call these influences “natural selection," is a misnomer which will not alter the conditions under which they may produce the desired results. Selection implies design; the powers to which Darwin refers the order of species, can design nothing. Selection is no doubt the essential principle on which the raising of breeds is founded, and the subject of breeds is presented in its true light by Mr. Darwin; but this process of raising breeds by the selection of favorable subjects, is in no way similar to that which regulates specific differences. Nothing is more remote from the truth than the attempted parallelism between the breeds of domesticated animals and the species of wild ones. Did there exist such a parallelism, as Darwin maintains, the difference among the domesticated breeds should be akin to the differences among wild species, and afford a clue to determine their relative degree of affinity by a comparison with the pedigrees of well-known domesticated races. Again, if there were any such parallelism, the distinctive characteristics of different breeds should be akin to the differences which exist between fossil species of earlier periods and those of the same genera now living. Now let any one familiar with the fossil species of the genera Bos and Canis, compare them with the races of our cattle and of our dogs, and he will find no correspondence whatever between them; for the simple reason that they do not owe their existence to the same causes. It must therefore be distinctly stated that Mr. Darwin has failed to establish a connection between the mode of raising domesticated

breeds, and the cause or causes to which wild animals owe their specific differences.

It is true, Mr. Darwin states that the close affinity existing among animals can only be explained by a community of descent, and he goes so far as to represent these affinities as evidence of such a genealogical relationship; but I apprehend that the meaning of the words he uses has misled him into the belief that he had found the clue to phenomena which he does not even seem correctly to understand. There is nothing parallel between the relations of animals belonging to the same genus or the same family, and the relations between the progeny of common ancestors. In the one case we have the result of a physiological law regulating reproduction, and in other affinities which no observation has thus far shown to be in any way connected with reproduction. The most closely allied species of the same genus or the different species of closely allied genera, or the different genera of one and the same natural family, embrace representatives which at some period or other of their growth resemble one another more closely than the nearest blood relations; and yet we know that they are only stages of development of different species distinct from one another at every period of their life. The embryo of our common fresh water turtle, Chrysemis picta, and the embryo of our snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, resemble one another far more than the different species of Chrysemis in their adult state, and yet not a single fact can be adduced to show that any one egg of an animal has ever produced an individual of any species but its own. A young snake resembles a young turtle or a young bird much more than any two species of snakes resemble one another; and yet they go on reproducing their kinds, and nothing but their kinds. So that no degree of affinity, however close, can, in the present state of our science, be urged as exhibiting any evidence of community of descent, while the power that imparted all their peculiarities to the primitive eggs of all the species now living side by side, could also impart similar peculiarities with similar relations, and all degrees of relationship, to any number of other species that have existed. Until, therefore it can be shown that any one species has the ability to delegate such specified peculiarities and relations to any other species or set of species, it is not logical to assume that such a power is inherent in any animal, or that it constitutes part of its nature.* We must look to the original power that imparted life to the first being for the origin of all other beings, however mysterious and inaccessible

* The difficulty of ascertaining the natural limits of some species, and the mistakes made by naturalists when describing individual peculiarities as specific, has nothing to do with the question of the origin of species, and yet Darwin places great weight, in support of his theory, upon the differences which exist among naturalists in their views of species. Some of the metals are difficult to distinguish, and have frequently been mistaken, and the specific differences of some may be questioned; but what could that have to do with the question of the origin of metals, in the minds of those who may doubt the original difference of metals? Nothing more than the blunders of some naturalists in identifying species with the origin of species of animals and plants. The great mischief in our science now lies in the selfcomplacent confidence with which certain zoologists look upon a few insignificant lines, called diagnoses, which they have the presumption to offer as characteristics of species, or, what is still worse, as checks upon others to secure to themselves a nominal priority. Such a treatment of scientific subjects is unworthy of our age.

the modes by which all this diversity has been produced may remain for The production of a plausible explanation is no explanation at all, if it does not cover the whole ground.

us.

All attempts to explain the origin of species may be brought under two categories: viz. 1st, some naturalists admitting that all organized beings are created, that is to say, endowed from the beginning of their existence with all their characteristics, while 2d, others assume that they arise spontaneously. This classification of the different theories of the origin of species, may appear objectionable to the supporters of the transmutation theory; but I can perceive no essential difference between their views and the old idea that animals may have arisen spontaneously. They differ only in the modes by which the spontaneous appearance is assumed to be effected; some believe that physical agents may so influence organized beings as to modify them-this is the view of DeMaillet and the Vestiges of Creation; others believe that the organized beings themselves change in consequence of their own acts, by changing their mode of life, etc., this is the view of Lamarck; others still assume that animals and plants tend necessarily to improve, in consequence of the struggle for life, in which the favored races are supposed to survive ; this is the view lately propounded by Darwin. I believe these theories will, in the end, all share the fate of the theory of spontaneous generations so called, as the facts of nature shall be confronted more closely with the theoretical assumptions. The theories of DeMaillet, Oken, and Lamarck are already abandoned by those who have adopted the transmutation theory of Darwin; and unless Darwin and his followers succeed in showing that the struggle for life tends to something beyond favoring the existence of certain individuals over that of other individuals, they will soon find that they are following a shadow. The assertion of Darwin, which has crept into the title of his work, is, that favored races are preserved, while all his facts go only to substantiate the assertion, that favored individuals have a better chance in the struggle for life than others. But who has ever overlooked the fact that myriads of individuals of every species constantly die before coming to maturity? What ought to be shown, if the transmutation theory is to stand, is that these favored individuals diverge from their specific type, and neither Darwin nor any body else has furnished a single fact to show that they go on diverging. The criterion of a true theory consists in the facility with which it accounts for facts accumulated in the course of long-continued investigations and for which the existing theories afforded no explanation. It can certainly not be said that Darwin's theory will stand by that test. It would be easy to invent other theories that might account for the diversity of species quite as well, if not better than Darwin's preservation of favored races. The difficulty would only be to prove that they agree with the facts of Nature. It might be assumed, for instance, that any one primary being contained the possibilities of all those that have followed, in the same manner as the egg of any animal possesses all the elements of the full-grown individual but this would only remove the difficulty one step further back. It would tell us nothing about the nature of the operation by which the change is introduced. Since the knowledge we now have, that similar

metamorphoses go on in the eggs of all living beings has not yet put us on the track of the forces by which the changes they undergo are brought about, it is not likely that by mere guesses we shall arrive at any satisfactory explanation of the very origin of these beings themselves.

Whatever views are correct concerning the origin of species, one thing is certain, that as long as they exist they continue to produce generation after generation, individuals which differ from one another only in such peculiarities as relate to their individuality. The great defect in Darwin's treatment of the subject of species lies in the total absence of any statement respecting the features that constitute individuality. Surely, if individuals may vary within the limits assumed by Darwin, he was bound first to show that individuality does not consist of a sum of hereditary characteristics, combined with variable elements, not necessarily transmitted in their integrity, but only of variable elements. That the latter is not the case, stands recorded in every accurate monograph of all the types of the animal kingdom upon which minute embryological investigations have been made. It is known, that every individual egg undergoes a series of definite changes before it reaches its mature condition; that every germ formed in the egg passes through a series of metamorphoses before it assumes the structural features of the adult; that in this development the differences of sex may very early become distinct; and that all this is accomplished in a comparatively very short time, extremely short, indeed, in comparison to the immeasurable periods required by Darwin's theory to produce any change among species; and yet all this takes place without any deviation from the original type of the species, though under circumstances which would seem most unfavorable to the maintenance of the type. Whatever minor differences may exist between the products of this succession of generations are all individual peculiarities, in no way connected with the essential features of the species, and therefore as transient as the individuals; while the specific characters are forever fixed. A single example will prove this. All the robins of North America now living have been for a short time in existence; not one of them was alive a century ago, when Linnæus for the first time made known that species under the name of Turdus migratorius, and not one of the specimens observed by Linnæus and his cotemporaries was alive when the Pilgrims of the Mayflower first set foot upon the Rock of Plymouth. Where was the species at these different periods, and where is it now? Certainly nowhere but in the individuals alive for the time being; but not in any single one of them, for that one must be either a male or a female, and not the species; not in a pair of them, for the species exhibits its peculiarities in its mode of breeding, in its nest, in its eggs, in its young, as much as in the appearance of the adult; not in all the individuals of any particular district, for the geographical distribution of a species over its whole area, forms also part of its specific characters.* A species is only known when its whole history

* We are so much accustomed to see animals reproducing themselves, generation after generation, that the fact no longer attracts our attention, and the mystery involved in it no longer excites our admiration. But there is certainly no more marvellous law in all nature than that which regulates this regular succession. And upon this law the maintenance of species depends; for observation teaches us that all that is not individual peculiarity is unceasingly and integrally reproduced while all that constitutes individuality, as such, constantly disappears.

•has been ascertained, and that history is recorded in the life of individuals through successive generations. The samne kind of argument might be adduced from every existing species, and with still greater force by a reference to those species already known to the ancients.

Let it not be objected that the individuals of successive generations have presented marked differences among themselves; for these differences, with all the monstrosities that may have occurred, during these countless generations, have passed away with the individuals, as individual peculiarities, and the specific characteristics alone have been preserved, together with all that distinguishes the genus, the family, the order, the class, and the branch to which the individual belonged. Moreover all this has been maintained through a succession of repeated changes, amounting in each individual to the whole range of transformations, through which an individual passes, from the time it is individualized as an egg, to the time it is itself capable of reproducing its kind, and, perhaps, with all the intervening phases of an unequal production of males and females, of sterile individuals, of dwarfs, of giants, etc., etc., during which there were millions of chances for a deviation from the type. Does this not prove that while individuals are perishable, they transmit, generation after generation, all that is specific or generic, or, in one word, typical in them, to the exclusion of every individual peculiarity which passes away with them, and that, therefore, while individuals alone have a material existence, species, genera, families, orders, classes, and branches of the animal kingdom exist only as categories of thought in the Supreme Intelligence, but as such have as truly an independent existence and are as unvarying as thought itself after it has once been expressed.

Returning, after this digression, to the question of individuality among Acalephs, we meet here phenomena far more complicated than among higher animals. Individuality, as far as it depends upon material isolation, is complete and absolute in all the higher animals, and there maintained by genetic transmission, generation after generation. Individuality, in that sense, exists only in comparatively few of the Radiates. Among Acalephs it is ascertained only for the Ctenophora and some Discophora. In others, the individuals born from eggs end by dividing into a number of distinct individuals. In others still, the successive individuals derived from a primary one, remain connected to form compound communities. We must thererefore, distinguish different kinds and different degrees of individuality, and may call hereditary individuality that kind of independent existence manifested in the successive evolutions of a single egg, producing a single individual, as is observed in all the higher animals. We may call derivative or consecutive individuality that kind of independence resulting from an individualization of parts of the product of a single egg. We have derivative individuals among the Nudibranchiate Mollusks, whose eggs produce singly, by a process of complete segmentation, several independent individuals. We observe a similar phenomenon among those Acalephs the young of which (Scyphostoma) ends in producing, by transverse division (Strobila), a number of independent free Medusa (Ephyra). We have it also among the Hydroids which produce free Medusa. Next, we must distinguish secondary individuality, which is inherent to those individuals arising as