Animal Causes. 219 



earth should contain shoals of mechanical models in 

 every sub-kingdom, ranging from the most clumsy 

 and awkward of contrivances to the most skilful, 

 ingenious, and perfectly equipped. This we find, for 

 a more heterogeneous museum of motor anomalies 

 could not be swarmed in nightmare than abounds on 

 our congested planet, from a suctorial acinetarian to 

 a termite queen, or from an ornithorynchus to a 

 Siamese-twin. 



(5) Animal Reproduction. — According to a French 

 writer, the beautiful is simply an excess of the useful, 

 and reproduction simply an excess of nourishment. 

 So long as nourishment in low organisms conduces to 

 growth, then growth only is the result, but when 

 surfeit occurs, reproduction takes place and the 

 organism divides into two. 



Keeping in view our magnetic theory, this hypo- 

 thesis of reproduction could be illustrated in a simple 

 manner. Thus, if we take a bar magnet, and holding 

 it up load one end with iron filings, a time would 

 come when the magnet would not be able to sustain 

 the weight of added filings. The superabundant mass 

 would then drop, and through being magnetised by 

 the magnet would retain its magnetism and thus form 

 another magnet ; a virtual child-magnet produced by 

 over-feeding the parent. 



Coupling this theory with what has been now 

 advanced regarding the evolution of animal cells, 

 structure, and animal mechanism, it will be obvious 

 that production and reproduction are simple chemical 



