370 THE DEVELOPMENT II1TOTJIES1S. 



differs so greatly that no visible resemblance of any kind 

 can be pointed out between them. Yet is the one changed 

 in the course of a- few years into the other : changed so 

 gradually, that at no moment can it be said Xo\v the 

 seed ceases to be, and the tree exists. What can be more 

 widely contrasted than a newly-born child and the small, 

 semi-transparent, gelatinous spherule constituting the hu 

 man ovum ? The infant is so complex in structure that a 

 cyclopaedia is needed to describe its constituent parts. 

 The germinal vesicle is so simple that it may be defined in 

 a line. Nevertheless, a few months suflice to develop the 

 one out of the other ; and that, too, by a series of modifi 

 cations so small, that were the embryo examined at succes 

 sive minutes, even a microscope would with difficulty dis 

 close any sensible changes. That the uneducated and tho 

 ill-educated should think the hypothesis that :ill races of 

 beings, man inclusive, may in process of lime have been 

 evolved from the simplest monad, a ludicrous one, is not to 

 be wondered at. ]Jut for the physiologist, who knows that 

 every individual being is so evolved who knows further, 

 that in their earliest condition the germs of all plants and 

 animals whatever are so similar, &quot;that there is no apprecia 

 ble distinction amongst them which would enable it to be 

 determined whether a particular molecule is the germ of a 

 conferva or of an oak, of a zoophyte or of a man ; : * for 

 him to make a difficulty of the matter is inexcusable. Sure 

 ly if a single cell may, when subjected to certain influences, 

 become a man in the space of twenty years ; there is 

 nothing absurd in the hypothesis that under certain other 

 influences, a cell may in the course of millions of years 

 give origin to the human race. The two processes are 

 generically the same; and difl er only in length and com 

 plexity. 



We have, indeed, in the part taken by many scientific 

 * Carpeuter. 



