THE VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL KINGDOMS. 159 



Australia and the islands of the Pacific, development appears 

 to have not yet passed through the whole of its stages, because, 

 owing to the comparatively late uprise of the land, the terres- 

 trial portion of the development was there commenced more 

 recently. It would commence and proceed in any new 

 appropriate area, on this or any other sphere, exactly as it 

 commenced upon our area in the time of the earliest fossili- 

 ferous rocks, whichever these are. Nay, it perhaps starts every 

 hour with common infusions, and in similar humble theatres, 

 and might there proceed through all the subsequent stages, 

 granting suitable space and conditions. Thus simple after 

 ages of marvelling appears Organic Creation, while yet the 

 whole phenomena are, in another point of view, wonders of the 

 highest kind, being the undoubted results of ordinances arguing 

 the highest attributes of foresight, skill, and goodness on the 

 part of their Divine Author. 



This seems the proper place at which' to remark more par- 

 ticularly, that the course of organic nature is not invariably 

 forward. It has its ebbs as well as its flows, though the general 

 movement is to be contemplated as onward. As a normal ar- 

 rangement in the case of the species, the animal may be better 

 provided by nature in its youth than afterwards ; for example, 

 many marine rnollusks are at first fitted for a free-swimming 

 life, but, as they attain maturity, lose their limbs, and become 

 sessile. Such is a proceeding of nature, and we must take it 

 as we find it. 1 It throws an interesting light on some of the 

 objections which have been urged against the present hypo- 

 thesis, showing, for instance, how a grade-transition in that 

 general gestation of nature which has been spoken of, might, 



1 " The possession of locomotive power, at some period of life, by 

 beings that are fixed, or nearly so, during the whole remainder of their 

 existence, is a very general occurrence among Plants as well as Animals, 

 and is evidently destined to prevent the overcrowding of any particular 

 type in one spot. Locomotion is not in itself a character of elevation ; 

 for it is presented by the zoospores of the simplest Algse, and by the 

 gemmules of Sponges and Zoophytes, which are propelled by ciliary 

 movement. As in the case of other functions, elevation is marked by 

 the development of organs specially set apart for the purpose. Perhaps 

 the most curious instance of absolute recession is shown in the metamor- 

 phosis of the Cirrhipeds, which in their young state have not only distinct 

 locomotive members, but also eyes, resembling those of Entomostracous 

 Crustacea, but which lose these when they settle down for adult life. 

 Here, as in the case of the curious larvse of star-fish, Echinida, &c., it is 

 obvious that the object of the peculiar endowments of the embryonic 

 form is the dispersion of the individuals." MS. Notes of a Physiologist. 



