300 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



the toe ; and there can hardly be a doubt that even those 

 on the corresponding sides of the body differ, though al- 

 most identical in nature. This near approach to identity 

 is curiously shown in many diseases in which the same 

 exact points on the right and left sides of the body are 

 similarly affected ; thus Sir J. Paget gives a drawing of a 

 diseased pelvis, in which the bone has grown into a most 

 complicated pattern, but "there is not one spot or line 

 on one side which is not represented, as exactly as it 

 would be in a mirror, on the other. 



Many facts support this view of the independent life 

 of each minute element of the body. Virchow insists 

 that a single bone-corpuscle or a single cell in the skin 

 may become diseased. The spur of a cock, after being in- 

 serted into the ear of an ox, lived for eight years, and ac- 

 quired a weight of three hundred and ninety-six grammes 

 (nearly fourteen ounces) and the astonishing length of 

 twenty-four centimetres, or about nine inches ; so that 

 the head of the ox appeared to bear three horns. The 

 tail of a pig has been grafted into the middle of its back, 

 and reacquired sensibility. Dr. Oilier inserted a piece of 

 periosteum from the bone of a young dog under the skin 

 of a rabbit, and true bone was developed. A multitude 

 of similar facts could be given. 



p S68 What can be more wonderful than that 

 characters, which have disappeared during 

 scores, or hundreds, or even thousands of generations, 

 should suddenly reappear perfectly developed, as in the 

 case of pigeons and fowls, both when purely bred and 

 especially when crossed ; or as with the zebrine stripes on 

 dun-colored horses, and other such cases ? Many mon- 

 strosities come under this same head, as when rudimentary 

 organs are redeveloped, or when an organ which we must 



