62 ON VARIETIES, RACES, SUB-SPECIES, AND SPECIES. 



degeneration of cultivated plants, regarding- it from the same 

 point of view as the author of the Ampelographij. 



If there be any one question presented by natural history to 

 the thoughts of a philosopher, and, by the importance of the con- 

 sequences depending on it, demanding his best attention more 

 than any other, it is the question whether animal and vegetable 

 species iiave a character so permanent tliat the individuals repre- 

 senting them cannot be essentially modified without being alto- 

 gether destroyed, or wliether their organization is s,o flexible that 

 they may, in certain cases, undergo such modifications tiiat the 

 individuals representing them may, in time and by a succession 

 of changes, constitute species diffierent from those which the same 

 individuals represented before such modifications took place. 



As we have always adopted the strict experimental method of 

 inquiry mto scientific matters, so we have always carefully dis- 

 tinguished the conclusions to which we have been led into jiositive 

 consequences, i?iductions, and conjectures ; and witli regard to 

 the question now under consideration, we confess that we cannot 

 understand the great assurance with which it has been decided, 

 by certain writers, sometimes one way and sometimes the other. 

 To affirm that the solution of this question is positively and cor- 

 rectly arrived at and known, is to entertain an opinion that what 

 the holder affirms can never be modified, whatever may be here- 

 after discovered. What will become, it may well be asked, of ex- 

 perimental science if this mode of thinking gains ground? What 

 will become of the researches into the increase of animals and 

 fecundation of vegetables, the inquiries into the modifications 

 whicli can be produced by a long-continued diet, or by any in- 

 fluences different from those which exist in ordinary life? ^Vhy 

 undertake them if they cannot be expected to throw some light 

 on the subject ? Is there nothing more to be learned from the 

 study of the organisation of the lower animals and plants, nothing 

 from the study of the forms covered over with substances which, 

 composed of the debris of organised beings, seem in certain cir- 

 cumstances like yeast in fermentation with sugar, animated with 

 a sort of life? It is clear that those who, like ourselves, are 

 convinced of the importance of such inquiries, think that in fol- 

 lowing a path scarcely opened, it is of more importance to make 

 sure of our present knowledge by converting probability into cer- 

 tainty, than to add new proofs in support of an opinion which it 

 may be wished should be triumphant. 



Is it possible, it may be asked, for any one holding your opi- 

 nions to give such a definition of species that it may be precise 

 so far as it at present can be, and yet have such a latitude as to 

 leave to the future the task of defining and fixing what is still 

 vague and uncertain ? We think it is, and we shall endeavour 



