i A a et 
II | 
THE PAST CONDITION OF ORGANIC NATURE. 
In the lecture which I delivered last Monday 
evening, I endeavoured to sketch in a very brief — 
manner, but as well as the time at my disposal — 
would permit, the present condition of organic — 
nature, meaning by that large title simply an — 
indication of the great, broad, and general — 
principles which are to be discovered by those — 
who look attentively at the phenomena of organic — 
nature as at present displayed. The general — 
result of our investigations might be summed up 
thus: we found that the multiplicity of the forms — 
of animal life, great as that may be, may be ~ 
reduced to a comparatively few primitive plans or — 
types of construction ; that a further study of the — 
development of those different forms revealed to — 
us that they were again reducible, until we at — 
last brought the infinite diversity of animal, and — 
even vegetable life, down to the primordial form ~ 
of a single cell. 
