PROOFS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AUTHORITIES, ETC. xlv 



absolute!}' necessary to his theory, that such phenomena should now 

 he witnessed. It has been, on the contrary, admitted that the time 

 for them may be past. It has nevertheless been pointed out that a 

 very remarkable decree of modifiability exists in organic beings of 

 all grades, but especially the lower. And this has been indicated as 

 favourable to the doctrine of organic development, for if a great 

 variation can take place in the short period during which scientific 

 observation has existed, it is quite clear that a greater still may have 

 taken place in one of the vast spaces of time forming the epochs of the 

 geologist. It is asked by the impartial public, how great is the 

 degree of variation now occasionally observed to take place. They 

 would learn nothing on the subject from Professor Seclgwick, beyond 

 an ingenious hint that such things are confined to " dark corners of 

 the animal kingdom," which ^every other person of his degree of 

 intelligence in scientific matters knows is not true. Having else- 

 where^" treated the subject pretty fully, we shall content ourselves 

 here with one case, taken from a part of the organic world by no 

 means obscure. There is a wild grass named the JEgilops ovata, and 

 there is another well known plant called wheat. They are totally unlike 

 each other, and naturalists have classified them not only as distinct 

 species, but of distinct genera. Well, M. Fabre, in the course of 

 twelve seasons, by merely selecting particular plants for reproduc- 

 tion, has converted the cegilops into wheat. Here is a fact fully 

 attested, and which no naturalist, as far as we are aware, rejects. 

 The reader will judge of the value of the declaration that there is not 

 the shadow of a proof of specific transformations, when he thus hears 

 of one which may be styled generic; a stride ten times wider. See 

 Vestiges: chapter entitled Hypothesis of the Development of the 

 Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms ; also Proofs, Illustrations, &c., 



No. 11. 



No proof of specific transmutations ! Ay, scores of them, if we 

 only could fix down naturalists to the species they have announced. 

 It is only true that there are no specific transmutations in the same 

 sense as "it is true that no Quakers are ever brought to the gallows. 

 Whenever species are transformed into each other, the naturalist 

 concludes that they, were not distinct species, but only varieties of 

 one. " Species," in short, represents an idea in his mind, and every- 

 thing inconsistent with this is a " mistake." Convenient philosophy, 

 where formulae of thought go first, and i'acts coming after are forced 

 to square with them. Mr. Seclgwick knows the laws of nature by 

 intuition, and with great complacency assures us that the mistakes 

 of naturalists will not alter them. 



About twenty pages of his preface are oceupied with an account of 

 the views of Dr. Clark of Cambridge, regarding animal development, 

 the main drift of which is to show that the higher animal does not 

 in embryo pass through stages corresponding to the character of the 

 lower animals. 



In opposition to the views of Dr. Clark of Cambridge, who has 

 not been much heard of beyond the walls of that university, and to 



