Ill 



On the other side, it must be admitted, when our attention is limit- 

 ed to the plants and animals now existing upon the earth, that much 

 more prima facie evidence is found to countenance a belief in the 

 permanent distinctness of species ; and that, consequently, the great 

 majority of naturalists do steadfastly hold to this belief And we may 

 likewise say confidently, that all the clearest, most readily tested facts, 

 directly tend to confirm the axiom of " omne ex ovo." 



Against these admissions, it may be fairly contended, that the for- 

 mation of a plant or animal, from unorganized matter, could only be 

 expected in the case of very small and very simply organized species; 

 and that it is precisely in these cases we find the doctrine of " ottme 

 ex ovo " to be itself incapable of proof. And as to the metamorphose 

 of one species into another, it must be remembered, that the very de- 

 finition of " species " comes in the form of a petitio principii ; since 

 the widest change ever seen, in the descendants of any plant or ani- 

 mal, would only entitle them to the name of " variety," according to 

 recognized usage in the application of these terms. 



The author of the Vestiges pleads the case of the minority ; and I 

 will now quote his views, as briefly as possible, in his own words ; 

 strongly recommending his whole volume to the attentive perusal of 

 phytologists. 



" The nucleated vesicle, the fundamental form of all organization, 

 we must regard as the meeting-point between the inorganic and the 

 organic — the end of the mineral and beginning of the animal king- 

 doms, which thence start in different directions, but in perfect parel- 

 lelism and analogy. We have already seen that this nucleated vesicle 

 is itself a type of mature and independent being in the infusory ani- 

 malcules, as well as the starting point of the foetal progress of every 

 higher individual in creation, both animal and vegetable. We have 

 seen that it is a form of being which electric agency will produce — 

 though not perhaps usher into full life — in albumen, one of those 

 compound elements of animal bodies, of which another (urea) has 

 been made by artificial means. Remembering these things, we are 

 drawn on to the supposition, that the first step in the creation of life 

 upon this planet was a chemico-electric operation ^ hy which simple 

 germinal vesicles were produced. This is so much, but what are the 

 next steps ? Let a common vegetable infusion help us to answer. 

 There, as we have seen, simple forms are produced at first, but after- 

 wards they become more complicated, until at length the life-produ- 

 cing powers of the infusion are exhausted. Are we to presume that, 

 in this case, the simple engender the complicated ? " * * * 



