II.] INCIPIENT STRUCTURES. 69 



only ; the same as regards the infant kangaroo, with its 

 singular deficiency of power compensated for by maternal 

 structures on the one hand, to which its own breathing 

 organs bear direct relation 011 the other. Again, the deli- 

 cate and complex pedicellariee of Echinoderms, with a 

 certain process of development (through a secondary larva) 

 found in that class, together with certain other exceptional 

 modes of development, have been brought forward. The 

 appearance of colour in certain apes, the hood of the cobra, 

 and the rattle of the rattlesnake, have also been cited. 

 Again, difficulties as to the process of formation of the eye 

 and ear, and as to the fully developed condition of those 

 complex organs, as well as of the voice, have been con- 

 sidered. The beauty of certain shell-fish ; the wonderful 

 adaptations of structure, and variety of form and resem- 

 blance, found in orchids ; together with the complex 

 habits and social conditions of certain ants, have been 

 hastily passed in review. When all these complications 

 are duly weighed and considered, and when it is borne in 

 mind how necessary it is for the permanence of a new 

 variety that many individuals in each case should be 

 simultaneously modified, the cumulative argument against 

 the sole or predominant action of Natural Selection seems 

 irresistible. 



The author of this book can say, that, though by no 

 means disposed originally to dissent from the theory of 

 " Natural Selection," if only its difficulties could be solved, 

 he has found each successive year that deeper consideration 

 and more careful examination have more and more brought 

 home to him the inadequacy of Mr. Darwin's theory to 

 account for the preservation and intensification of incipient, 

 specific, and generic characters. That minute, fortuitous, 



