226 SPECIES NOT 



destined to have any ultimate connection? Its 

 organization is not permanent, but that this is 

 sufficient for the circumstances of its transitory 

 life, is a fact which needs no illustration. As a 

 general truth, nothing can be more perfect than 

 the means provided for embryonic life and growth. 



5th. "The embryo apparently, has sometimes 

 a higher organization than the mature animal, 

 into which it is developed." 



As this depends entirely upon the arbitrary 

 characters given by naturalists to the term 

 "higher organization," we may at once dismiss 

 it as a simple error of judgment, in those who 

 do not distinguish between the relative terms, 

 embryo, zooid, and individual. Mr. Darwin, how- 

 ever, reasoning upon the above five propositions, as 

 though they were literally true, thus attempts to 

 account for them, according to his theory. 



First, he concludes, "it is quite possible that 

 each of the many successive modifications, by 

 which each species has acquired its present struc- 

 ture, may have supervened at a very early period 

 of life; in other cases it is quite possible, that 

 they may have appeared at an extremely early 

 period." 



Secondly, he considers that at whatever age 

 any variation first appears in the parent, it tends 

 to re-appear at a corresponding age in the off- 

 spring." 



These conclusions were arrived at from the 

 following experiments, among others: He mea- 

 sured the puppies and parents of greyhounds, and 



