282 LESSONS FEOM NATUKE. [CHAP. IX. 



ceivable that the physiological units of a living organism may be so 

 influenced by surrounding conditions (organic and other) that the 

 accumulation of these conditions may upset the previous rhythm of 

 such units, producing modifications in them a fresh chord in the 

 harmony of nature a new species !&quot; 



For the arguments by which this view is supported and 

 antagonistic hypotheses contested, the reader is referred to 

 the work from which the passage just quoted has been 

 taken. Here it can be only incidentally defended, yet 

 one passing remark may be now made. That characters 

 of importance suddenly appearing are not really unlikely to 

 persist, is confirmed by an observation made by Mr. Darwin 

 himself, who tells us (in his Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 233) : 

 &quot; When any character lias suddenly appeared in a race 

 or species as the result of a single act of variation .... 

 and this race is crossed with another not thus characterized, 

 the characters in question do not commonly appear in a 

 blended condition in the young, but are transmitted to them 

 either perfectly developed or not at all.&quot; 



The view of specific genesis whicli I support, though 

 arrived at in complete independence, is more or less similar 

 to that enunciated fifteen years ago by Professor Theophilus 

 Parsons, of Harvard University in the United States. It also 

 agrees in many respects with the views advocated by Pro 

 fessor Owen in the last volume of the Anatomy of Verte 

 brates, under the term &quot; derivation.&quot; He there says : 

 &quot; Derivation holds that every species changes in time, by 

 virtue of inherent tendencies thereto.&quot; 



Mr. Darwin, as every one knows, has attempted to account 



Mr. Darwin s for the appearance of new forms of animals and 



plants by a certain special process called by him 



&quot; Natural Selection ;&quot; an hypothesis which may be thus 



shortly stated : 



Every organism tends to multiply geometrically and to 

 transmit a general likeness, with individual differences, to its 

 offspring. No two individuals are quite alike. Past time is 

 practically infinite. Each individual which survives to breed 



