Chap. I. 



DIVERSIFIED TYPES FOUXD EVERYWHERE. 



15 



fauna and every flora upon the surface of the glolje. I low great the diversity of 

 animals and pLuits hving together in the same region may be, can be ascertained by 

 the perusal of special works upon the Zoiilogy and Botany of different countries, or 

 from special treatises upon the geograj)hicid distribution of animals and plants.^ I 

 need, therefore, not enter into further details upon this subject, especially since it is 

 discussed more fully below.^ 



It might, perhaps, be urged, that animals living together in exceptional conditions, 

 and exhibiting structural peculiarities apparently resulting from these conditions, such 

 as the blind fish,'' the blind crawfish, and the blind insects of the Mammoth Cave 

 in Kentuck}', furnish uncontrovertible evidence of the immediate influence of those 

 exceptional conditions upon the organs of vision. If tiiis, however, were the case, 

 how does it happen that that remarkable fish, the Mihh/ojjsis spelceus, has only such 

 remote affinities to other fishes ? Or were, perhaps, the sum of influences at work to 

 make that fish blind, capable also of devising such a combination of structural charac- 

 ters as that fish has in common with all other fishes, with those peculiarities which 

 at the same time distinguish it? Does not, rather, the existence of a rudimentary 

 eye discovered by Dr. J. Wyman in the blind fish shoAV, that these animals, like all 

 others, Avere created with all their peculiarities by the fiat of the Almighty, and this 

 rudiment of eyes left them as a remembrance of the general plan of structure of 

 the great type to which they belong? Or will, perhaps, some one of those natural- 

 ists \vlio know so much better than the physicists Avhat physical forces may produce, 

 and that they may produce, and have px'oduced every living being known, exjilain 

 also to us why subterraneous caves in America produce blind fishes, blind Crustacea, 

 and l)lind insects, while in Europe they produce nearly blind reptiles? If there is 

 no thought in the case, why is it, then, that this very reptile, the Proicus aiiffidnus, 

 forms, with a number of other reptiles living in North America and in Japan, one of 



^ SciiMAUiiA, Die geographische Verlinituii;,' <li'r 

 Thiere, 3 vols. 8vo. Wien, 1853. — Swainson, (W-.) 

 A Trcatisp on the Geojrraiiliy uiul Classification of 

 Animals, London, 1S3."), 1 vol. I'inio. — Zbhikumann, 

 (E. A. G.,) S|iccini('n ZoologiaJ gcograpliic;!'. (^)uaclni- 

 pedum domii'ilia ft niifrrationes sistens, Lugduni-Ha- 

 tav., 1777, 1 vol. 4to. — Ilf.MluM.DT, Essai snr la gfo- 

 grapliic dt's planti's. 4to., Paris. ISO."); and Ansiclitcn 

 der Natnr, 3d edit., rjnio., Stntl;.'ardt and Tubin- 

 gen, 1849. — Roiii'.iM- liitdWN, General Remarks on 

 the Botany of Terra Australis, London, 1814. — 

 Sciioi.w. (Irundziisc ciner allgeineinen I'tlanzengeo- 

 grajdiif. 1 \ol. Svo.. Willi alias in fcil.. llcrliii, 1823. 

 — Ai.i'ii. Di: Candoi-LE, Geographic bolanicine rai- 



sonnee, 2 vols. 8vo., Paris, 1855. References to 

 special works may be found below. Sect. 9. 



- See, below, Sect. 9. 



* AVvMAN, (Jkf..) Description of a Rliml Fish, 

 from a Cave in Kenfuek}', Sii.liman's Jour., 1843, 

 vol. 45, p. 94, and 1854, vol. 17, p. 2.')8. — Tki.i.- 

 KAMI'F, (Til. G..) Ueber di'ii blimU'n Fiscli der Mani- 

 niullihiilde in Kentucky, in ]Mi i.i.kr's Arehiv, 1844, 

 p. 381. — Tki.i.kami'k, (Tn. G.,) Beschreibung eini- 

 ger neuer in der JLamniuthhohle anfgefundener Gat- 

 tiingen von Gliederthieren, Wii-.oman's Areliiv, 1844, 

 vol. I., p. 318. — Ac.Assiz, (L.,) Observations on the 

 IJlinil l'"i>li (if ihi' Mammoth Cave, Sillisian's Jour- 

 nal, 1851, vol. 11, ji. 127. 



