xin.] CRITICISMS ON &quot;THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.&quot; 271 



But if this be a true statement of the nature of the process 

 of Agamogenesis, how can it enable us to comprehend the pro 

 duction of new species from already existing ones ? Let us 

 suppose Hyaenas to have preceded Dogs, and to have produced 

 the latter in this way. Then the Hyaena will represent A, and 

 the Dog, B. The first difficulty that presents itself is that the 

 Hyrena must be asexual, or the process will be wholly without 

 analogy in the world of Agamogenesis. But passing over this 

 difficulty, and supposing a male and female Dog to be produced 

 at the same time from the Hyaena stock, the progeny of the 

 pair, if the analogy of the simpler kinds of Agamogenesis l is to 

 be followed, should be a litter, not of puppies, but of young 

 Hyasnas. For the Agamogenetic series is always, as we have 

 seen, A : B : A : B, c. ; whereas, for the production of a new 

 species, the series must be A : B : B : B, &c. The production of 

 new species, or genera, is the extreme permanent divergence 

 from the primitive stock. All known Agamogenetic processes, 

 on the other hand, end in a complete return to the primitive 

 stock. How then is the production of new species to be 

 rendered intelligible by the analogy of Agamogenesis ? 



The other alternative put by Professor Kolliker the passage 

 of fecundated ova in the course of their development into higher 

 forms would, if it occurred, be merely an extreme case of 

 variation in the Darwinian sense, greater in degree than, but 

 perfectly similar in kind to, that which occurred when the well- 

 known Ancon Ram was developed from an ordinary Ewe s ovum. 

 Indeed we have always thought that Mr. Darwin has unneces 

 sarily hampered himself by adhering so strictly to his favourite 



1 If, on the contrary, we follow the analogy of the more complex forms 

 of Agamogenesis, such as that exhibited by some Trematoda and by the 

 Aphides, the Hyaena must produce, asexually, a brood of asexual Dogs, 

 from which other sexless Dogs must proceed. At the end of a certain 

 number of terms of the series, the Dogs would acquire sexes and generate 

 young ; but these young would be, not Dogs, but Hyaenas. In fact, we 

 have demonstrated, in Agamogenetic phenomena, that inevitable recurrence 

 to the original type, which is asserted to be true of variations in general, by 

 Mr. Darwin s opponents ; and which, if the assertion could be changed into 

 a demonstration, would, in fact, be fatal to his hypothesis. 



