1 66 VESTIGES OF THE 



creation, or under extraordinary casualties, though 

 science professes to have no such facts on record. It is 

 here to be remarked, that such facts might often happen 

 and yet no I'ecord be taken of them, for so strong is the 

 prepossession for the doctrine of invariable like-pro- 

 duction, that such circumstances, on occurring, would be 

 almost sure to be explained away on some other supposi- 

 tion, or, if presented, would be disbelieved and neglected. 

 Science, therefore, has no such facts, for the very same 

 reason that some small sects are said to have no dis- 

 creditable members — namely, that they do not receive 

 such persons, and extrude all who begin to verge upon 

 the character. There are, nevertheless, some facts which 

 have chanced to be reported without any reference to 

 this hypothesis, and which it seems extremely difficult to 

 explain satisfactorily upon any other. One of these has 

 already been mentioned — a progression in the forms of 

 the animalcules in a vegetable infusion from the simpler 

 to the more complicated, a sort of microcosm, represent- 

 ing the whole history of the progress of animal creation 

 as displayed by geology. Another is given in the history 

 of the Acarus Crossii, which may be only the ultimate 

 stage of a series of similar transformations effected by 

 electric agency in the solution subjected to it. There is, 

 however, one direct case of a translation of species, 

 which has been presented with a respectable amount of 

 authority."^ It appears that, whenever oats sown at the 

 usual time are kept cropped down during summer and 

 autumn, and allowed to remain over the winter, a thin 

 crop of rye is the harvest presented at the close of the 

 ensuing summer. This experiment has been tried 

 repeatedly, with but one result ; invariably the secah 



* See an article by Dr. Weissenborn, in the New Series oi' 

 "Magazine of Natural History," vol. i. p. 574. 



