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THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



.547 



such processes, develop into more complex individuali- 

 ties which are produced by the gradual differentiation 



con 



tinued cohesion of these new and old individuals into 



a single mass, assuming 

 ganism '. 



But what meaning are we to attach to the word 

 <^ species ' ? An ability to produce their like displayed by 

 the individuals of successive generations of similar forms, 

 combined with a changeability not going beyond certain 

 narrow limits, were the two fundamental ideas formerly 

 connoted by the word. An original representative of 

 each species was for a long time, and very generally, 

 supposed to have been specially created with the power 

 of perpetuating itself by reproduction. DifFerent specific 

 forms were, therefore, not supposed to be derived one 

 from another by any gradual process of change, but to 

 have been created in the form in which they are seen 

 to exist. Now, however, thanks more especially to the 

 writings of Mr. Darwin, this hypothesis is no longer 

 received as an established truth by a large and in- 

 creasing number of naturalists, whilst it is wholly 

 rejected by very many of the most eminent biologists 

 of the present day. The old ^ special-creation-hypothesis' 



^ Some individualized portions of such a mass may from time to time 

 separate either as agamic buds or as ' seeds ' and ' ova ' — and each of 

 such separated portions of the organism are themselves capable of 

 undergoing more or less similar processes of development. 



N n a 



i 



