NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 139 



of themselves Particles of matter fitted by 



(li^fi^estion, and their transmission throucfh a living body, 

 for immediate assimilation with it, or flakes of lymph 

 detached fi-om surfaces already organised, seem neither 

 to exceed nor fall helow that simplicity of structure 

 which favours this wonderful development ; and the sup- 

 position that, like morsels of a planaria, they may also, 

 when retained in contact with living jjarts, and in other 

 favourable circumstances, continue to live and be gra- 

 dually changed into creatures of analogous conformation, 

 is surely not so absurd as to be brought into comparison 



with the "Metamorphoses" of . Ovid We think 



the hypothesis is also supported in some degree by the 

 fact, that the origin of the entozoa is favoured by all 

 causes which tend to disturb the equality between the 

 secerning and al)sorbent systems." * Here particles of 

 organised matter are suggested as the germinal original 

 of distinct and fully organised animals, many of which 

 have a highly developed reproductive system. How near 

 such particles must be to the inorganic form of matter 

 may be judged from what has been said within the last 

 few pages. If, then, this view of the production of 

 entozoa be received, it must be held as in no small degree 

 favourable to the general doctrine of an organic creation 

 by law. 



There is another series of facts, akin to the above, and 

 which deserve not less attention. The pig, in its domes- 

 tic state, is subject to the attacks of a hydatid, from 

 which the wild animal is free ; hence the disease called 

 measles in pork. The domestication of the pig is, of 

 course, an event subsequent to the origin of man ; in- 

 deed, comparatively speaking, a recent event. Whence, 

 then, the first progenitor of this hydatid ? So also there 



* Article "Zoophytes," Encyclopcedia Brltannica, 7tli edition. 



