THE EVOLUTION OF THE EYE. 79 



Plate X. 

 Fig, 1. — A Colony of Cristatella, highly magnified. 

 ,, 2. — The same, slightly magnified. 

 ,, 3.— Statoblast, front view. 

 ,, 4. — Ditto, side view. 



Plates VIII. and X. are after drawings by Prof. Allman. 

 Plate IX. is drawn by R. H. Moore, from specimens in his aquarium. 



©n some Curioua facts conncctcb witb the 

 jevolution of tbe iB^c. 



By Mrs. Bodington. 



* 



SINCE DARWIN first clearly laid down the great laws which 

 govern evolution, hundreds of zealous disciples have worked 

 at the problem of which the great master had found the key. 

 I am old enough to remember that most of the facts in zoology 

 which were considered special stumbling blocks in accepting the 

 theory of evolution, proved special triumphs from the attention 

 which they drew. Amongst other objections, it was said, that if 

 horses had been evolved, a five-toed form must have existed, and 

 the five-toed form has been found ; that marsupials must have 

 been specially created for the regions where they are found — viz., 

 Australia and South America — yet behold, marsupials were 

 found amongst the earliest known fossil mammals in Europe. In 

 the same way, many things, which the prophetic eye of the great 

 master saw would be found out as to evolution, were specially 

 ridiculed. That mammary glands would be found to be modifica- 

 tions of sebaceous glands, and that eyes would be found to 

 originate from modifications of epidermal cells, were among those 

 prophetic utterances which all recent researches prove to have 

 been true. 



I only propose to take a very small portion of the great subject 

 of evolution to-night — viz., a few curious facts relating to the 

 evolution of the eye. They will, I hope, illustrate the importance 

 of both the great branches into which zoology tends to divide — 



* Paper read at a meeting of the County of Middlesex Natural History 

 Society, December 2ist, i8S6. 



