sH HISTORICAL SKETCH 



Professor Owen, in 18-19 ("Nature of Limbs," page 86), 

 ■wrote as follows: "The archetypal idea was manifested in 

 the flesh under diverse such modifications, upon this 

 planet, long prior to the existence of those animal species 

 that actually exemplify it. To what natural laws or sec- 

 ondary causes the orderly succession and progression of 

 such organic phenomena may have been committed, we, 

 as yet, are ignorant." In his Address to the British 

 Association, in 1858, he speaks (page li.) of "the axiom 

 of the continuous operation of creative power, or of the 

 ordained becoming of living things." Further on (page 

 xc.), after referring to geographical distribution, he adds, 

 "These phenomena shake our confidence in the conclusion 

 that the Apteryx of New Zealand and the Ked Grouse 

 of England were distinct creations in and for those islands 

 respectively. Always, also, it may be well to bear in 

 mind that by the word 'creation' the zoologist means 'a 

 process he knows not what.' " He amplifies this idea by 

 adding that when such cases as that of the Eed Grouse 

 are "enumerated by the zoologist as evidence of distinct 

 creation of the bird in and for such islands, he chiefly 

 expresses that he knows not how the Red Grouse came 

 to be there, and there exclusively; signifying also, by 

 this mode of expressing such ignorance, his belief that 

 both the bird and the islands owed their origin to a great 

 first Creative Cause." If we interpret these sentences 

 given in the same Address, one by the other, it ap- 

 pears that this eminent philosopher felt in 1858 his 

 coftfidence shaken that the Apteryx and the Red 

 Grouse first appeared in their respective homes, "he 

 knew not how," or by some process "he knew not 

 what." 



