TRANSMUTABLE. 95 



perfectly-organized beings, each adapted to its 

 position in the world, I should produce two 

 monsters, totally incapable of existing in their 

 allotted spheres. 



Again, in examining the anatomy of the human 

 body, I find that all the nutritious part of the 

 food which is eaten by man, is collected into a 

 long tube, called the thoracic duct, for the 

 purpose of being conveyed into the blood, where 

 it subserves the purposes of nutrition. Now I 

 find this duct opening into the veins where 

 two of them meet, one coming from the head, 

 another from the upper extremity; and I see 

 with admiration and delight that this important 

 thoracic duct, upon which the existence of the 

 being depends, opens exactly in the angle formed 

 by the junction of the two large veins, and I 

 know by other means of study that this angle 

 is exactly the spot, and the only spot, in which 

 the duct could open without the fluid regurgi- 

 tating, and thus being impeded in its entrance 

 into the blood! Well, I ask myself, was this 

 the result of a chance, or even a pre-ordained 

 variation? To the first question, only men 

 without reason would say yes. The second 

 must be true if Mr. Darwin's theory is sound. 

 But then again, as a comparative anatomist, I 

 carry my mind's eye down the scale of nature, 

 and I come to forms in which there is 110 

 thoracic duct at all! Now, immediately my 

 reason tells me that this ductless animal never 

 could have been altered into one with the 



