LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 73 



at once into the question ; while the doctrine of transmuta- 

 tion of species regards man himself as a possible developement 

 from forms lower in the scale of life. 



The whole argument, in fact, concentrates itself on this 

 point. Are Species best denoted as such by sexual cha- 

 racter and the power of propagating their like to be con- 

 sidered fixed and immutable as they came from the hands of 

 the Creator, or subject to such variations only as tend always 

 to return to the original type? Or is there an inherent 

 liability to or faculty of change, either from accident or the 

 operation of common laws, which can, and does, in the 

 course of time, create new species out of antecedent ones ; 

 an extension in effect, and higher result, of that very prin- 

 ciple of change by which varieties and races are brought into 

 existence ? The great name of Cuvier appears in the fore- 

 ground on behalf of the former opinion : Greoffroy St. Hilaire 

 made himself the chief of the opposite party. In England, 

 the transmutation doctrine first gained currency through 

 that well-known work the ' Vestiges of Creation ; ' and has 

 since been espoused by other writers of great and merited 

 reputation. Many of our most eminent naturalists, our 

 geologists especially, have entered with earnestness into a 

 controversy, rendered inevitable from the progress of their 

 science and the new phenomena ever coming before them. 

 Looking generally on the conflict as it now stands in this 

 country, we still find a predominance of opinion for the 

 fixity and permanence of species under the definition we 

 have given. But at the same time we notice a certain 

 cautious reserve in announcing any absolute or final opinion 

 on the subject; an effect doubtless of the ambiguities which 

 still surround it, and the difficulty on each side of reaching 

 any other than presumptive proof. While approaching the 

 question ourselves in this spirit, we shall seek to frame our 

 argument as a vindication of the older belief; feeling that 



