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CHAP. III. The Origin of Man by Constitution. 



1. WE have seen that the existence of man is perpetu- 

 ated by derivation. This appears too to be the general mode in 

 which the whole animal creation is perpetuated. We cannot how- 

 ever affirm that this origin, by derivation, is universal. The pre- 

 vailing form, the general rudiment of future being, appears to be 

 furnished by ova, evolved from the females of the respective species; 

 but that this form of origin is not universal, appears from the 

 examples of constitutions, which are admitted to belong to the 

 animal creation, among which, our experience does not inform us of 

 the existence of ova. 



2. The microscopic observers have detected animals of this 

 kind in vinegar and other fluids, in a mixture of flour and water, 

 &c. In these instances it is by no means ascertained that animal 

 existence is produced from a parental rudiment; on the contrary, it 

 appears to be produced by a change, the obvious part of which is 

 of a chymical kind, as one of fermentation. Myriads of animals 

 appear to start into being in the short space of a few hours, without 

 being preceded by those formal processes which constitute the 

 terms of the existence of man, and of the general tribes of animals. 

 It has been suggested that the fluids in these cases may obtain the 

 ova of the animals they contain from the atmosphere. Such a sup- 

 position is contrary to analogy, for the known ova of animals are 

 specifically heavier than atmospherical air; and if they should, in 

 compliance with an unsupported supposition, be allowed in these 

 instances to be lighter than air, very little is gained by the postula- 

 tum; for if they are so much lighter as to rise out of the element in 

 which their progenitors must have deposited them, the same cause 

 should certainly secure them against the possibility of gravitating 

 into the same situation again. 



3. These examples of apparently spontaneous life, as well as 

 some principles before sketched, suggest to us a consideration of the 

 origin of man which is more remote than that by derivation, which 

 is, unfortunately, prior to any possible records of experience, and on 

 which we are therefore but indifferently prepared to inquire with 

 success. However, we will hazard a few thoughts even on this 

 doubtful topic, which, it must be premised, makes no part, or but 

 an unimportant one, of the general design of this work. 



