DISTRIBUTE INSECT VARIETY. id 00 



and tlie animal world, first recognised as gelatinous zoophytes, 

 concludes with indications of star-gazing man himself. Species 

 uncouth like the ichthyosaurus and pterodactyle, intermediate 

 between existing orders, are also proved to have once abounded.^ 

 The proximate theory, acknowledging generally that the more 

 simply organised life forms had existence previous to the more 

 complex, is the received notion or development view of geologists. 

 Then in order to facilitate the comprehension of this progress 

 of Nature, which in well-stocked cabinets of extinct as of recent 

 life, from close sequence in kinds, appears zoologically to be 

 but her phases, many engaged in systematic classification have 

 applied themselves to determine Avhether indications of divergence 

 occur in existing organic forms, themselves intrinsically incon- 

 stant in the incessant phenomena of nutrition, assimilation, 

 circulation, and subsequent death. The attention of naturalists 

 has thus been very generally directed to the variation, distribu- 

 tion, and reproduction of kinds ; investigations which, as regards 

 the lower eccentric tribes, cannot be j^ursued without important 

 result. 



Firstly, as regards the variation of species. No one who 

 walks in his garden or visits his j^igeon-cots, dog-kennels, and 

 rabbit-hutches — nay, strays as far as his farm and poultry yard — 

 will, I suppose, deny the existence of an enchantment that has 

 been divinely evoked to minister to his daily wants or to afford 

 him innocent enjoyment : and with those who study and form 

 extensive and special collections of natural objects, the universality 

 of the laws here rendered prominent and embryonic by cultivation 

 originates a reluctance to define kinds, which in all departments 

 of Natural History take rank in groups as tyj^ical species, that, as 

 regards the lower orders are far outnumbered by their numerous- 

 variations and aberrations. The discovery of the successful 

 propagation of one of these varieties in a favourable locality to 

 the replacement of its ordinary type, has been supplemented by 

 the recognition of a struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, 

 and of sexual and natural selection ; laws existing, that we see 

 invoked to render incidentally acquired character permanent, and 

 which Ave have at length every reason to believe j^roduce progres- 



* Trans. Geological Soc. 



