108 Dr. Drummond on the Equivocal Generation o/* Entozoa. 



And why should we have recourse to this theory of equivo- 

 cal generation in order to account for the formation of the 

 Entozoa ? Precisely for the same reason that our progenitors 

 indulged in the erroneous notions alluded to. They cherished 

 the absurdity, because they were ignorant of the truth. They 

 did not know that insect ova were hatched into maggots, and 

 that maggots change into flies ; and as the place of breeding 

 of the barnacle was not known, they were determined to give 

 it some origin, and they did so on grounds just as valid as 

 those on which some modern physiologists rest the sponta- 

 neous origin of entozoic worms. The tentacula of the Lepas 

 resemble feathers ; why then should the shell not grow up to 

 be a goose ? An effused clot of lymph will become organized ; 

 w 7 hy then should it not grow into a Tape-worm ? The rea- 

 soning on the one side is just as good as on the other ; but we 

 may hope that a time will come when we shall have as direct 

 proof of the origin of the entozoon as we have of that of the 

 barnacle. At present, it is true, we are completely in the dark 

 respecting the origin of worms in the interior of other animals ; 

 but it is better, more philosophical, more like genuine dis- 

 ciples of truth, to confess our ignorance, than to adopt a theory 

 which is in direct opposition to what occurs in every depart- 

 ment of organized nature with which we are properly ac- 

 quainted. 



For my own part, I can no more conceive that Entozoa are 

 the creatures of chance than the animals they inhabit ; though 

 as to the manner of their origin, of which so little as yet is 

 known, I pretend to go no further than is expressed in the 

 old distich, — 



The things we know are neither strange nor rare, 

 But wonder how the devil they got there. 



Got there as they will, however, their possession of a di- 

 stinct and independent life, their having sensation, voluntary 

 motion, generative organs and functions, a digestive apparatus 

 and other attributes of animals, while they exhibit the most 

 minute, elaborate and exquisite workmanship, and also dis- 

 play the most unquestionable proofs of their whole composi- 

 tion, both general and partial, having been fabricated with the 

 utmost wisdom and adaptation to their mode of life, show as 

 clearly as if the proofs were written with a sunbeam, that they 

 cannot be beings of fortuitous origin ; that they are the off- 

 spring and work of the same Almighty hand which formed all 

 the other races of animated being ; and that to suppose their 

 admirable formation to be the result of a kind of chance, is to 

 impart to unintelligent matter that power and wisdom which 

 belong only to the Deity himself. 



