122 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



other in time. In our day, Darwin has given to such speculations 

 a form and coherency which they did not before possess, by his 

 doctrine of Natural Selection ; and theories of derivation and 

 transformation are perhaps more popular than at any previous 

 time, and are impressing themselves legibly on the practical 

 every day work of science. In these circumstances it becomes 

 necessary to watch the phases of opinion on this subject,|to examine 

 the various doctrines propounded, and to ascertain what progress 

 they are making, if any, toward the goal of truth. 



A very important contribution to this work has recently been 

 made by Professor Owen in the concluding chapter of his great 

 book on Physiology, just completed ; and I shall take this as the 

 basis of some remarks on the present state of the question of 

 derivation. 



Prof. Owen, availing himself of the privileges of a father in 

 Science, goes back to 1830 in reviewing the history of doctrines 

 of derivation, and shows that in his student days the question of 

 the origin of species was agitated by the great Cuvier and his 

 contemporary, GeoflFroy St. Hilaire, and that both of these great 

 masters of Natural Science had doubts as to the permanency of 

 species in geological time, though neither had before him enough 

 of biological evidence to establish this as a fact, or to frame any 

 certain theory as to the relation of modern to extinct species ; and 

 Cuvier, at least, saw evidence against derivation in the apparent 

 want of connecting links between fossil and recent species. 

 Owen endeavours to arrange the questions raised in 1830 under 

 several heads, and to state each as then agitated, and to " post it 

 up," so to speak, to the present period — -his evident intention 

 being to show that the views of Darwin and other recent 

 advocates of theories of derivation are by no means so original as 

 they are supposed to be. 



The first great question agitated by the French naturalists 

 forty years ago is that grand one — Is there unity of plan or 

 final purpose in living creatures ? Are the homologies or 

 resemblances of structure in organized beings merely parts of 

 the general plan, or do they point to genetic or other relations of 

 derivation ? Are the beautiful adaptations of organs to functions, 

 and of organisms to places in nature, evidences of deliberate 

 purpose working out its ends by means, or have the external 

 necessities given form to the organs ? On this question Cuvier, 

 in his assertion of teleology, evidently took the broader and more 



