82 THE MICROSCOPE. 



eludes, " If this be philosophy, it is such as might 

 have emanated from the college of Laputa" 1 



10. Professor Whewell maintains similar views 

 with equal earnestness, quoting the opinions 

 of the most eminent . naturalists (Cuvier being 

 specially named), as giving an " indisputable 

 preponderance to that decision which rejects the 

 transmutation of species," and which accepts 

 the principle " that the changes of which each 

 species is susceptible, though difficult to define 

 in words, are limited in fact." 2 



11. In Professor Sedgwick's invaluable Dis- 

 course, we have a note on the " Alternate Gene- 

 rations of Steenstrup," " Parthenogenesis of 

 Owen," &c., well worthy of the careful study of 

 those who would investigate these interesting 

 questions. We select a few quotations : 



" In some of the lower families of the ani- 

 mal kingdom larvae are incredibly fruitful, and 

 for several successive generations (sometimes 

 amounting to eight or ten) have an inherent 

 power, without any new sexual union, of ma- 

 turing and bringing forth new forms of larval 

 life, till the specific organic cycle is complete ; 



1 Roget's Bridge-water Treatise, vol. ii. pp. 636, 638. 

 * Whe well's Indications of the Creator, pp. 97-101. 



