64 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
number of nerve fibres, so fine, and dividing more and more, 
that with the highest power of the microscope it was impossible 
to trace them. Each of these tissues was connected with the 
electric lobes in the brain, and when cut across, were seen to be 
made up of a large number of nerve cells. 
The lecturer described in detail the structure of the electric 
plate, and went on to say that the electric organs claimed special 
attention, not only because of their remarkable structure and still 
more remarkable properties, but because their very existence was 
a mystery. Darwin found the electric organs a special difficulty 
to his theory of natural selections, for two reasons—he was able 
neither to understand their individual nor their ancestral 
history. That the electric organs had been gradually built up 
as the Torpedo and Electric Eel became more and more 
specialised, Darwin had no doubt; but he was unable to account 
for their origin by his law of natural selection. And before 
proceeding he emphasised the difference between evolution and 
natural selection. We spoke of the fact of evolution, but the 
theory of natural selection; for while all naturalists now agreed 
that animals and plants had been evolved, there was still some 
diversity of opinion as to the method by which the evolution had 
been effected. In reference to any plant or animal, it would be 
said by most naturalists that it was slowly evolved out of a mass, 
originally shapeless, of growing protoplasm, by means of natural 
selection operating on fortuitous variations. As to the guiding 
hand, science must be absolutely speechless. In asking 
science to tell us what was the cause of causation, we were 
asking her to cross an impassable channel,—to pass from the 
domain of fact to that of belief,—a feat, which if essayed, must 
inevitably end in failure. 
When, thirty years ago, the ‘Origin of Species’ was 
launched on its wonder-working career, nothing was known of 
the ancestral history of the Torpedo. Now the position was 
altered, and he was able to tell them not only what the 
Torpedo’s organs had been derived from, but also to trace every 
step in their life-history. To redeem his pledge, he went on to 
direct attention to the so-called “ pseudo electric” organs of 
Skate. He pointed out that fifty years ago no one ever 
suspected that the Skate was possessed of electric batteries, and 
that until a few months ago naturalists would probably have 
