SUPPOSED NEW ORGANISMS. 27 



certain organisms well known to us, and of 

 very ancient lineage, that we may feel quite 

 sure that the beings themselves, had they been 

 compared, would not have been distinguished 

 from one another. Indeed, the organisms sup- 

 posed to have been prepared artificially, have 

 in many cases been identified as a well known 

 species, which had descended from its prede- 

 cessors of the same kind in the ordinary vital 

 manner. The supposed artificially produced 

 organism will go through exactly the same 

 phases of change as the one derived from a 

 pre-existing creature. 



It has been assumed that the actions of man 

 and the highest animals differ in essential nature 

 from those of the lowest creatures, but it would 

 not be in accordance with the facts learnt by 

 study, in any department of nature, to assume 

 that the highest form of living matter is formed, 

 or works, or acts upon principles totally dif- 

 ferent from those which obtain with respect to 

 the lowest simplest kinds of living matter 

 known. In the absence of positive evidence to 

 the contrary, it would be dangerous in the 

 extreme to assume that, for example, a monad 

 may be built up anew from the non-living, 



