IV 



THE PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS, HEREDI- 

 TARY TRANSMISSION AND VARIATION. 



THE inquiry which we undertook, at our last 

 meeting, into the state of our knowledge of the 

 causes of the phenomena of organic nature, of 

 the past and of the present, resolved itself into 

 two subsidiary inquiries : the first was, whether we 

 know anything, either historically or experimen- 

 tally, of the mode of origin of living beings; the 

 second subsidiary inquiry was, whether, granting 

 the origin, we know anything about the perpetua- 

 tion and modifications of the forms of organic beings. 

 The reply which I had to give to the first question 

 was altogether negative, and the chief result of my 

 last lecture was, that, neither historically nor ex- 

 perimentally, do we at present know anything 

 whatsoever about the origin of living forms. We 

 saw that, historically, we are not likely to know 

 anything about it, although we may perhaps learn 

 something experimentally ; but that at present we 

 are an enormous distance from the goal I indicated. 



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