tb 



55^ 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



been much perturbed by this aspect of the question the 

 view is^ as we have already pointed out^ undesirable on 

 other grounds. Whilst it is not adopted by Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer^ it is also discountenanced by Prof. 

 Allen Thomson^ who said ^^ even in 1855^ in his 

 valuable article on the ^Ovum': — ^It seems to require 

 a greater departure from the ordinary signification of 

 a common term than is warranted by our present im- 

 perfect knowledge of the phenomena, arbitrarily to 

 determine to regard merely as one individual all those 

 bodies which may be formed by a non-sexual process 

 from the product of a single ovum, notwithstanding the 

 great variations in their structure and mode of life, 

 and the complete separation and apparent independence 

 to which they may attain/ 



It should not be forgotten, in fact, that the word ^in- 

 dividual^ is a general name of the widest applicabilityj 

 whilst *^ species^ is an abstract name — corresponding 

 to no external reality — which is^ therefore, capable of 

 receiving an amended signification, without much in- 

 convenience, whenever the progress of science may 



The connotation of the 



demand 



any 



such change. 



word *^ species' has indeed already been unmistakeably 

 modified in the minds of many persons, even within 

 this generation; and we think it will be found that 

 all the difficulties experienced by those naturalists 

 who thought it necessary to alter the meaning of the 



r 



word ^individual,' will be cleared away at less cost. 



1 ( 



Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys.' (Supplement), vol. v. p. l^ 



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