II 



THE PAST CONDITION OF ORGANIC NATURE. 



IN the lecture which I delivered last Monday 

 evening, I endeavoured to sketch in a very brief 

 manner, but as well as the time at my disposal 

 would permit, the present condition of organic 

 nature, meaning by that large title simply an 

 indication of the great, broad, and general 

 principles which are to be discovered by those 

 who look attentively at the phenomena of organic 

 nature as at present displayed. The general 

 result of our investigations might be summed up 

 thus : we found that the multiplicity of the forms 

 of animal life, great as that may be, may be 

 reduced to a comparatively few primitive plans or 

 types of construction ; that a further study of the 

 development of those different forms revealed to 

 us that they were again reducible, until we at 

 last brought the infinite diversity of animal, and 

 even vegetable life, down to the primordial form 

 of a single cell. 



