108 EXPLANATIONS. J 



be said, then, there is no true difficulty in this 

 quarter. 



Perhaps no part of the arguments for the de- 

 velopment theory has been more misapprehended, 

 or misrepresented, than this. It is continually 

 said, that the embryo, at any of its particular 

 stages, is not in reality the animal represented by 

 that stage. The Edinburgh reviewer remarks, with 

 regard to the fish stage, " Were the embryo of a 

 mammal thrown off at that time into water (of its 

 own temperature,) it could not support life for a 

 moment." The brain of a child in the seventh 

 month is also said to be not the brain of any of 

 the inferior animals, but a true human brain. The 

 truth is, no one ever pretended that there was such 

 an identity. It is only said that there is a re- 

 semblance in general character between the par- 

 ticular embryotic stage of being, and the mature 

 condition and form of the appropriate inferior 

 animal. The particular adaptations, and the cha- 

 racter of vital maturity, are all wanting, and there- 

 fore it is that the embryo could not live, as the 

 inferior animal represented, if separated from the 

 parent, and really is not that inferior animal. 



It may be well, before leaving this part of the 

 subject, to advert to a special charge which this 



