184 THE entomologist's record. 



Excrescences fast were now trying to shoot ; 

 Some put out a feeler, some put out a foot ; 

 Some set up a mouth, and some struck down a root, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 See, hydras and sponges and star-tishes breed. 

 And flics, fleas and lobsters in order succeed, 

 While ichthyosauruses follow the lead 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Some, wishing to walk, manufactured a limb ; 

 Some rigged out a fin, with a purpose to swim ; 

 Some opened an eye, some remained dark and dim, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 From reptiles and fishes to birds we ascend. 

 And quadrupeds next their dimensions extend, 

 Till we rise up to monkeys and men — where we end 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Some creatures are bulky, some creatures are small, 

 As nature sends food for the few or for all ; 

 And the weakest we know ever go to the wall, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 A deer with a neck that is longer by half 

 Than the rest of its family (try not to laugh). 

 By stretching and stretching becomes a giraffe. 



Which nobody can deny. 

 The four-footed beast that we now call a whale. 

 Held his hind legs so close that they grew to a tail, 

 Which he uses for threshing the sea like a flail, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 A very tall pig, with a very long nose, 

 Sends forth a proboscis quite down to his toes ; 

 And he then by the name of elephant goes. 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Pouters, tumblers and fantails are from the same source ; 

 The racer and hack may be traced to one horse ; 

 So men were developed from monkeys, of course, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 An ape with a pliable thumb and big brain. 

 When the gift of the gab he had managed to gain. 

 As a Lord of Creation established his reign, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 But I'm sadly afraid, if we do not take care, 

 A relapse to low life may our prospects impair ; 

 So of beastly propensities let us beware, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Their lofty position onr children may lose, 

 And, reduced to all fours, must then narrow their views 

 Which would wholly unfit them for filling our shoes, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Their vertebrEe next might be taken away. 

 When they'd sink to a shell-tish or spider, some day, 

 Or the pitiful part of a polypus play, 



Which nobody can deny. 

 Thus losing Humanity's nature and name, 

 And descending through varying stages of shame. 

 They'd return to the Monad, from which we all came. 

 Which nobody can deny. 



These notes, culled from the only purely entomological magazine 

 of the time, exhibit fairly the negative or opposition state of mind 

 exhibited by many entomologists, a state of mind never really changed 

 in ihe following half-century by several of oiir leading systematists. 

 The difference in the position now is only too marked. We have those 

 who are willing to tell us that we are able to see species in the making 

 under our eyes, who see in every form of variation species in the 



