LIFE PLANS. 259 



vesicular, giving a rough imitation of a lung. The gar-pike 

 too, is capable of a vertical motion of the head; that is, un- 

 like all other modern fishes, it has a neck, and can raise the 

 head, like a reptile. The ancient ganoids were certainly not 

 less reptilian than the modern ones. The possession of bony 

 armor is also a reptilian prerogative; and it may be added, 

 that the teeth of the ancient ganoids were truly reptilian. 

 Those of Onychodus were strikingly so. As in reptiles, too, 

 the vertebral column continued to the end of the tail. Thus 

 the ancient Ganoids possessed several reptilian characters; 

 while in general form, they were fish-like; in aquatic respira- 

 tion, in many rayed fins, in cranial and general skeletal struc- 

 ture they were fishes. Thus the ancient Ganoids, and to a 

 similar extent, the modern ones, were a comprehensive type. 

 They anticipated reptiles ; they were prophetic of reptiles. 

 Later the ganoid type was resolved. The ichthyic characters 

 were retained in one organism, and the reptilian were gathered 

 together in a different organism. Now, we can not avoid 

 feeling interest in the question: How did it occur that an 

 animal on the whole a fish, should incorporate in its structure, 

 features of a class which was yet far in the future? And 

 what was the purpose of such a combination ? I will try to 

 express my views on these questions when I come to a Talk 

 on the method of creation. 



The Amphibians are a comprehensive type. They are 

 comprehensive as a whole as a class-conception ; and within 

 the class are subordinate or ordinal types which are specially 

 comprehensive. Structurally they partake of the natures of 

 fishes and of reptiles. They are fish-like in branchial respir- 

 ation during early life. They are fish-like in the possession 

 of bi-concave vertebrae; in having two occipital condyls, and 

 in other less conspicuous characters of the skull ; in the organs 

 which serve as kidneys; and among Batrachians (frog-like) 

 in the double septum which divides the orbits which is a 

 ganoid character. They are reptilian in breathing air in adult 

 life ; in the possession of appendages for locomotion on land, 

 and in the undivided ventricle of the heart. The nervous 



