CHAPTER XIII 



VISIT TO AMERICA [1876-77]. 



One of the earlier efforts of 1876 was a Friday Evening 

 Discourse, delivered on January 28, at the Royal Institution 

 " On the Border Territory between the Animal and the 

 Vegetable Kingdoms," afterwards published in Macmillatis 

 Magazine (Sci. Mem., iv, xi, p. 145. Coll. Essays, viii, 

 p. 162). Here the conclusion is reached that, — 



" the difference between animal and plant is one of degree rather 

 than kind, and that the problem whether, in a given case, an 

 organism is an animal or a plant, may be essentially insoluble." 



A second lecture " On the Teleology and Morphology 

 of the Hand," given at Glasgow on February 15, was 

 never published in its original form, but is of special 

 interest because it emphasizes the Darwinian doctrine 

 that teleology and evolution are so far from being irre- 

 concilable that the former, broadly expressed, is a 

 necessary corollary of the latter. The old teleology, as 

 more particularly set forth in Paley's Natural Theology 

 (one of Huxley's favourite Sunday books as a boy), held 

 that every organism and organ was separately created for 

 a special purpose, finding this the only explanation of the 

 adaptation of structure to function everywhere to be 

 found. Bell's famous Bridgewater Treatise on the human 

 hand develops this view with reference to a particular 

 instance, and no doubt suggested to Huxley his choice of 

 subject for the Glasgow lecture. 



The new teleology explains the adaptation of structure 



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