TRANSMUTABLE. 15 



in successive ages into different orders and classes, 

 by a change produced in the animal from use. 

 That is to say, an animal, whether mollusk, fish, 

 reptile, or bird, might by the constant use of any 

 one organ produce a permanent alteration in it, 

 arid thus become gradually changed into a creature 

 having altogether different habits, form, functions, 

 and development. 



In 1854 was published the "Vestiges of a 

 Natural History of Creation," in which the author 

 admitting that there was a glimmer of truth in 

 the theory of Lamarck, proceeded to demolish it 

 by endeavouring to prove that the Creator peo- 

 pled the earth with living forms, not at one time 

 only, but at successive periods, and not by actual 

 creation, but by the operation of a certain law, 

 by which development in living structures was 

 altered or arrested at different points, thus pro- 

 ducing transmutation of species, and adapting a 

 form living, we will say in water, to one living 

 in air; thus believing, like Lamarck, in ultimate 

 results, but differing as to the modus operandi. 



The author of the "Vestiges," however, went 

 further than Lamarck in believing that his pri- 

 mordial organism arose, not by a positive and 

 distinct act of creation, but also by a law, still 

 thought to be in operation, through" which animal 

 or vegetable forms were brought into being by 

 the mere commingling under electrical or other 

 forces of the chemical elements of which they were 

 composed ; in other words, he believed with Bur- 

 meister and others in "spontaneous generations." 



