DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 341 



distinctly formulated and sketched out more than two years before, 

 at the commencement of the series in 1855,) the eminent physiolo- 

 gist Dr. Carpenter ])roduced his valuable memoir on the Conserva- 

 tion of Force in Physiology; in which for the first time he dis- 

 tinctly affirms the development of vegetative reproductive energy, 

 by the partial running down of matter to its stabler compounds, — 

 '' by the retrograde metamorphosis of a portion of the organic com- 

 pounds prepared by the previous nutritive operations:" and also 

 the ultimate return by decay, of the whole amount of force as well 

 as of matter, temporarily borrowed from nature's store. Likewise 

 with animal powers, "these forces are developed by the retrograde 

 metamorphosis of the organic compounds generated by the instru- 

 mentality of the plant, whereby they ultimately return to the simple 

 binary forms (water, carbonic acid, and ammonia,) which serve as 

 the essential food of vegetables. - - - Whilst the vegetable is 

 constantly engaged (so to speak) in raising its component materials 

 from a lower plane to the higher, by means of the power which it 

 draws from the solar rays, — the animal whilst raising one portion 

 of these to a still higher level by the descent of another portion to 

 a lower, ultimately lets down the whole of what the plant had 

 raised." * So little was Henry's earlier paper known abroad, that 

 his name does not occur in Dr. Carpenter's dissertation. 



Derivation of Species. — With regard to the great biologic ques- 

 tion of the past fifteen years — the affiliation of specific forms, it 

 was impossible that Henry should remain an unconcerned observer. 

 Brought up (as it may be said) in the school of Cuvier, but slightly 

 impressed with the brilliant previsions of his competitor, Geoffi"oy 

 Saint Hilaire, accustomed to look upon the recurrent hypotheses of 

 automatic development as barren speculations, and beside all this, 

 ever the warmly attached personal friend of Agassiz, he approached 

 the consideration of this controverted subject, certainly with no 

 antecedent affirmative pre-possessions. His general acquaintance 

 with the ascertained facts of the metamorphic development of the 

 individual organism from its origin, as well as with the remarkable 

 analogies and homologies disclosed' by the sciences of comparative 



* Quart. Jour. Sci. 1864, vol. 1. pp. 87 and 267. 



