STUDIES IN ASTTMAL LIFE. Ill 



the species is preserved ; and if a dog without its 

 fore paws has offspring, every one of which pos- 

 sesses the fore paws, the reason is, that Tidee de 

 Tespece se reproduit dans le fruit, et lui donne des or- 

 ganes qui manquaient au pbre ou d la mere* It is 

 not easy to understand how the idea of a species can 

 reproduce itself, and give the offspring of a dog the 

 organs which were wanting in the parents ; but to 

 those who believe that species exist independently 

 of individuals, and form the only real existences, 

 the conception may be easier. 



I have too much respect for the reader to drag 

 him through a refutation of such philosophy as 

 this ; the statement of the opinion is enough. And 

 yet, unless some such opinion be maintained, the 

 doctrine of fixity of species is without a basis ; for 

 if it be said that the group of characters which con- 

 stitute the dog are incapable of change, and in this 

 sense species are fixed, we have to ask what evi- 

 dence there can be for such an assertion? since it 

 is notorious that individual dogs do show a change 

 in some of the characters of the group. We shall 

 be referred to the Egyptian tombs for evidence. 

 M. Flourens assures us that not only are these 

 tombs evidence that species have not changed in 

 four thousand years, but that no species has changed 

 aucune espece n'a change which is surely stepping 

 a long way beyond the precincts of the tombs ! 



It may be paradoxical, but it is strictly true, that 



* BUKDACH : Physiologic, ii., 245. 



