EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 65 



ing power which they possess, with relation to 

 those of a lower class, and more especially to 

 vegetables in general. An elephant seldom 

 produces more than one young in the course of 

 two years ; while, on the contrary, rabbits pro- 

 pagate every six weeks. This power increases, 

 in an infinite degree, as we descend in the 

 scale of animation. Hens frequently lay forty 

 or fifty eggs in one season, and when we reflect 

 that pigeons can hatch nine times in one year, 

 it appears that they can multiply their species, 

 in four years, near fourteen thousand times. 



In the amphibia, this prolific power is equally 

 observable. There was a turtle killed in Lon- 

 don a few years since, out of which, two thou- 

 sand five hundred eggs were obtained : the 

 quantity of ova that fish evolve is so immense, 

 that they are often known to cover, for the space 

 of many leagues, the surface of the ocean. We 

 all see the multitude of maggots that are gene- 

 rated in rotten cheese, and of different insects 

 that are produced in different substances which 

 are undergoing the process of putrefaction 

 and fermentation ; a single mite has been 

 known, in the course of a few days, to re-produce 

 its species at least one thousand times. 



If we cast our eyes to the surface of the 

 earth, we shall be convinced of the prolific 

 powers of vegetables, <and of the lower order of 

 animals, with relation to those of a higher class. 



