148 Book Notices. 
breeds, and the cause or causes to which wild animals owe their specific 
tionship; but I apprehend that the meaning of the words he tfses has 
misled him into the belief that he had found the clue to phenomena 
which he does not even seem correctly to understand. There is nothing 
arallel between the relations of animals belonging to the same genus or 
the same family, and the relations between the progeny of common an- 
cestors. In the one case we have the result of a physiological law reg- 
bservati 
ulating reproduction, and in other affinities which no observation has 
od 
our common fresh water turtle, Chrysemis picta, and the embryo of our 
snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, resemble one another far more than 
the different species of Chrysemis in their adult state, and yet not 4 sin: 
¢ of an animal has ever 
all their peculiarities to the primitive eggs of all the species now living 
side by side, could also impart similar peculiarities with similar relations, 
and all degrees of relationship, to any number 
species or set of species, it is not logical to assume that such porn 
is inherent in any anima i - 
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* The difficulty of ascertaining the natural limits of some species, and the mis- 
takes made by naturalists when describing individual peculiarities as specific, has 
the blunders of some naturalists in identifyi i igin of spe 
: ying species with the origin © 
cies of animals and lants. The ischief in our science now lies in the self- 
i or, what is still worse, as checks upon others to secure to themselves # 
priority, Such a treatment of scientific subjects is unworthy of our ag 
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