14' HOMO V. DARWIN. 



Lord C. Foreshadowing, perhaps, the family groups of 

 their remote human posterity ! 



Homo. Mr. Darwin, my Lord, does not tell us whether 

 ancient Ascidians were social or not. It is their degenerate 

 posterity we are now looking at. Here (see Frontispiece) 

 is another engraving, showing the larv^ of Ascidians. The 

 large one, from the " Penny EncyclopEedia," is highly 

 magnified, and shows the creature when newly hatched. 

 The smaller one is from " Chambers' Encyclopaedia. " These 

 authorities state that " they resemble tadpoles in shape, and 

 swim by means of a vibratile tail, which they shake off 

 when they quit the larva state and assume the sesdle 

 (sitting or fixed) condition." 



Lord G. On what ground do yon affirm, Mr. Darwin, that 

 we human beings are descended from creatures such as these? 

 . Darwin. " If we may rely on Embryology," my Lord, 

 "which has always proved the safest guide in classification, 

 we have at last gained a clue to the source whence the 

 Vertebrata have been derived." It has lately been discovered 

 that " the larvge of Ascidians are related to the Vertebrata, 

 in their manner of development, in the relative position of 

 the nervous system, and in possessing a structure closely 

 like the chorda dorsalis of vertebrate animals. . . . We 

 should thus be justified in believing that, at an extremely 

 remote period, a group of animals existed resembling in 

 many respects the larvae of our present Ascidians, which 

 diverged into two great branches — the one retrograding in 

 development, and producing the present class of Ascidians, 

 the other rising to the crown and summit of the animal 

 kingdom by giving birth to the Vertebrata." I may add 

 that " some observations lately made by M. Kowalevsky, 

 since confirmed by Professor Kuppfer," led to this discovery, 

 which will be one of " extraordinary interest, if still further 



