no Permanence and Evolution. 



quent reduction of others ; but in all cases the 

 reason of change is at once apparent 



" How can such similarity in animals so entirely 

 different be explained ? To all naturalists who 

 accept the gradual descent and differentiation 

 of all paridigitata from one common form, the 

 fact must appear as a perfectly reasonable and 

 intelligible one. If the immediate progenitor 

 of the paridigitata presented the given arrange- 

 ment of the tarsal and carpal bones, then, at 

 the gradual differentiation of this type, every 

 small change in one bone called forth a corre- 

 sponding change in all its neighbours ; and as 

 the link that connects all the forms together 

 was never destroyed, and the changes were 

 slowly going on, we meet now, in the extremely 

 differentiated descendants, a unity of organi- 

 sation which was inevitable, if all these forms 

 descended from one common progenitor. 



" But if, leaving the point of view of evolu- 

 tionists, we look at the matter from the special 



