xii.] foj)* Origin 0f Species. 261 



glairy fluid, holding granules in suspension. But strange 

 possibilities lie dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let 

 a moderate supply of warmth reach its watery cradle, 

 and the plastic matter undergoes changes so rapid and 

 yet so steady and purposelike in their succession, that 

 one can only compare them to those operated by a 

 skilled modeller upon a formless lump of clay. As 

 with an invisible trowel, the mass is divided and sub- 

 divided into smaller and smaller portions, until it is 

 reduced to an aggregation of granules not too large to 

 build withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. 

 And, then, it is as if a delicate finger traced out the line 

 to be occupied by the spinal column, and moulded the 

 contour of the body ; pinching up the head at one end, 

 the tail at the other, and fashioning flank and limb into 

 due salamandrine proportions, in so artistic a way, that, 

 after watching the process hour by hour, one is almost 

 involuntarily possessed by the notion, that some more 

 subtle aid to vision than an achromatic, would show the 

 hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving with 

 skilful manipulation to perfect his work. 



As life advances, and the young amphibian ranges the 

 waters, the terror of his insect contemporaries, not only 

 are the nutritious particles supplied by its prey, by the 

 addition of which to its frame growth takes place, laid 

 down, each in its proper spot, and in such due proportion 

 to the rest, as to reproduce the form, the colour, and the 

 size, characteristic of the parental stock ; but even the 

 wonderful powers of reproducing lost parts possessed by 

 these animals are controlled by the same governing 

 tendency. Cut off the legs, the tail, the jaws, separately 

 or all together, and, as Spallanzani showed long ago, 

 these parts not only grow again, but the redintegrated 

 limb is formed on the same type as those which were 

 lost. The new jaw, or leg, is a newt's, and never by any 



