THE MAMMALIA. 



note-' ;lio difficulties ari^ins from the endless 



oe <>f tin- agreement of thousands of cir- 

 cumstances which are necessary for the production 

 of a definite organism, but declares this highly 

 improbable combination to be a law. That a sea- 

 >f the southern ocean should * originate ' 

 >p<>ntaneously without ancestors, and be precisely 

 an individual in the northern ocean, which 

 existence to the same unknown processes 

 without ancestors, shows such a degree of improba- 

 bility that it amounts to an impossibility. It is, in 

 fact, as improbable as that Adam originated out of 

 a clod of earth. The prophecy that the whole 

 edifice of the Darwinians would collapse, while the 

 theory of a universal law of development (which 

 a number of independent pedigrees as its 

 would rise up triumphantly instead, has not 



fulfilled. 



However, convergences and repetitions have 

 observed in abundance since then. In my 

 wm-k on the Sponges, I have adduced special proofs 

 of how a scries of coim r^ncies the formation of 

 nmls, form and disposition of microscopic 

 !' skeleton and entire skeletons, root-like off- 

 shoots, tensions and oilier formations which are 



against the intrusion of 



