158 THOUGHTS ON SPECIES. 



it has been identified, and continued to the production of a 

 new perfect being. It is of little consequence in how few or 

 many instances this tendency is capable of manifesting itself, 

 or what fractional part of the organic cycle is passed over by 

 the unaided impulse toward development in the great majo- 

 rity of animal bodies. The fact now indisputably established 

 by Von Siebold, that the eggs of a virgin moth, secluded 

 from access to the male with the most watchful and guarded 

 care, unquestionably produce a progeny of new beings, undis- 

 tinguishable from those which had preceded them, determines 

 the possibility of structural evolution through all the terms 

 of at least one entire cycle, independently of any influence 

 derived from the sperm cells of the male. The regenerative 

 tendency in the ovum must hence be a specific endowment 

 resulting in the production of a perfect being as a general 

 law, only when aided by the sperm cells of the male, but 

 analogous in its nature to reproduction by gemmation, to 

 the formation of new beings from the division of a perfect 

 Hydra, to the evolution of new members to replace those 

 which have been lost. In a word, regeneration is a mani- 

 festation of continuous growth in species in their respective 

 cycles of organic evolution, around which the structural pro- 

 cesses revolve and repeat continuously and precisely what had 

 been accomplished by pre-existing representative bodies, with- 

 out power to exceed or restrict a designated and pre-ordained 

 orbit. And for each there is a persisting life, never intermitted 

 for an instant of time, running through a chain of representa- 

 tive bodies, and reaching from the first created conception, not 

 only to the present time but into that future when organic 

 existence shall have terminated. This produces, and must 

 continue to produce, successive representatives which har- 

 monize and agree with the original and inceptive organism, 



