806 On Species. 



r 



way of elucidation, to explain what is meant bj fundamental 

 qualities. But the idea of a group is not essential ; and more- 

 over it tends to confuse the mind by bringing before it, in the 

 outset, the endless diversities in individuals, and suggesting 

 numberless questions that vary in answer for each kingdom, 

 class, or subordinate group. It is better to approach the subject 

 from a profounder point of view, search for the true idea of dis- 

 tinction among species, and then proceed onward to a considera- 

 tion of the systems of variables. 



Let us look first to inorganic nature. From the study of the 

 inorganic world we learn that each element is represented by a 

 specific amount or law of force; and we even set down in num- 

 bers the precise value of this force as regards one of the deepest 

 of its qualilieSj cliemical attraction. Taking the lightest element 

 as a unit to measure others by, as to their weights in combination, 

 oxygen stands in our books as 8 ; and it is precisely of this nu- 

 merical value in its comj)ounds: each molecule is an 8 in its 

 chemical force or law, or some simple multiple of it. In the 

 same way there is a specific number at the basis of other quali- 

 ties. Whenever then the oxygen amount and kind of force was 

 concentered in a molecule, in the act of creation, the species 

 oxygen commenced to exist. And the making of many such 

 molecules instead of one, was only a repetition in each molecule, 

 of the idea of oxygen. 



In combinations of the elements, as of oxygen and hydrogen, 

 the resultant molecule is still equivalent to a fixed amount, 

 condition, or law, of chemical force; and this law, which we ex- 

 press in numbers, is ^t the basis of our notion of the new species. 



It is not necessarily a different amount of force; for it may 

 be simply a different state of concentration or different rate or 

 law of action. This should be kept in mind in connection with 

 what follows."^ 

 ^ The essential idea of a species, thence deduced, is this: a spe- 

 lts corresponds to a svedfic amount or condition of concentered 



cies 



force^ defined in the act or law of creation, , 



Turn now to the organic world. The individual is involvea 

 ill the germ-cell from which it proceeds. That cell possesses 

 certain inherent qualities or powers, bearing a definite relation 

 to external nature, so that, when having its appropriate nidus or 

 surrounding conditions, it will grow, and develop out each organ 

 and member to the completed result, and this, both as to all 



* When we have in view, oxygen and the elements, we are apt to think of the^ 

 toolecules as distinguished by a different amount and Bmd of force. But when we 

 consider the many different compounds that may be made of the same ^j*^"^^!?^!;,^ 

 carbon and hydrogen), in the very same proportions, we are led to concei^ve ot tne= 

 as diffiiring molecularly in a different law of the same force or forces. When, a^,j 

 we see the same element under conditions as diverse as any two compound-s as 

 x;ase3 of allotropism, we are still better satisfied with adopting, for the P[^^*"\r 

 #no9t genera! wq>ressioii— a different law of action or condition of molecular force. 



