1858-64.] NATURAL SELECT/OAT. 127 



of forms, by proofs based on observations easily 

 repeated and accessible to every one who studies spe- 

 cies, then we shall understand the origin of species 

 by accidental transformation, which they want us to 

 believe. The theory of the followers of Cuvier does 

 not differ so much from that of the transformists as is 

 generally supposed. The plan of both is the same ; 

 in both, intermediate species have always been recog- 

 nized, and the discovery of links between past forms 

 and new ones is mainly due to the researches of 

 Cuvier, Agassiz, Owen, and others. But it is the part 

 played by accident, as a sort of mechanical process 

 constantly made use of by Darwin and his school, 

 which fails to explain an enormous amount of palaeon- 

 tological and biological facts, which are all left to 

 be accounted for by pure hypothesis. Suppress all 

 hypotheses, if possible, and then the two schools of 

 immutability and mutability of species will unite. But 

 as long as hypotheses are the main factors in the 

 problem, it will remain a problem, and not a final 

 solution. 



If natural selection or other expedients proposed by 

 Darwin and his school will account for the origin of 

 species, the mechanical process resorted to should 

 not be difficult to get at. Laboratories for biological 

 research exist now in great numbers, in both hemi- 

 spheres, and if it is as simple as Darwin, Wallace, 

 and Haeckel are inclined to think, we shall before 

 long have new species to add to the catalogues 

 of plants and animals. If, on the contrary, no new 

 species is produced, we shall be obliged to have re- 



