18 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Yol. vi. 



Professor Parsons^' writes as follows : 



'' Suppose the time to have come when there is to be a new 

 creation, and it is to be a dog, or rather two dogs, which shall be 

 the parents of all dogs. How shall they be created ? . . . . 

 The fifth view is, they will be created by some influence of varia- 

 tion acting upon the ova of some animal nearest akin — a wolf, or 

 a fox, or a jackal — and the brood will come forth puppies, and 

 grow up dogs to become dogs." 



B3sides the above, several other authors (Gray, J Argyll, J and 

 Nealeg) had already hinted at the necessity of admitting the sud- 

 den production of new specific forms, in some cases at least ; and 

 Darwin himself, as we shall see hereafter, appears to have a dim 

 idea that something of the kind might happen in defiance of 

 natural selection. 



Nothing like direct evidence can be given in support of this 

 theory of '-specific genesis;" but the question really is, as stated 

 by Parsons, whether, as a provisional hypothesis, it is not on the 

 whole, less improbable than any other, and open to fewer objec- 

 tions. Those who, like Spencer, are unwilling to admit the 

 action of any but known physical laws and agencies, may say, and 

 truly, that the supposition of an ''innate internal tendency" only 

 removes the difficulties one step further back, and is at best 

 merely re-stating the case in a general way ; but little more can 

 be said of the theory of gravitation. 



ON A NEW FOSSIL CRUSTACEAN FI103I THE 

 DEVONIAN EOCKS OF CANADA. 



Extract from a pai^er in the Geological Marjazine, Vol. 8, No. 3, "ow some new 

 Phyllopodous Crustaceans from the Palaeozoic MucJcs. 



By Henry Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S. 



Amonost a series of Crustacean remains, from the collection of 

 Prof. Bell, of Canada, obtained in the Middle Devonian of G-asp^, 

 and left with me for examination by the kindness of Principal 

 Dawson, F.R.S., of McGill College, Montreal, is a portion of a 



* American Journal of Science, July J 1860. 



t Am. Jovrn. of Science, March, 1860 ; Atlantic Monthly, July, Aug., 

 Oct., 1860. 



; " Reign of Law" p. 237. 



§ Froc. Zool. Sac. of London, Jan. 18, 1861. 



