Geographical Distribution. Bit 
place, or places, on the earth’s surface other than 
that in which they occur; and hence we must say 
that one of the objects of special creation—if this 
be the true theory—was that of depositing species 
in only some among the several parts of the earth’s 
surface equally well suited to support them. 
Now, I do not contend that this fact in itself raises 
any difficulty against the theory of special creation. 
But I do think that a very serious difficulty is raised 
when to this fact we add another—namely, that on 
every biological region we encounter species related 
to other species in genera, and usually also genera 
related to other genera in families. For if each of 
all the constituent species of a genus, and even of a 
family, were separately created, we must hence con- 
clude that in depositing them there was an unaccount- 
able design manifested to make areas of distribution 
correspond to the natural affinities of their inhabi- 
tants. For example, the humming-birds are gcogra- 
phically restricted to America, and number 120 
genera, comprising over 400 species. Hence, if this 
betokens 400 separate acts of creation, it cannot 
possibly have been due to chance that they were 
all performed on the same continent: it must have 
been design which led to every species of this large 
family of birds having been deposited in one geogra- 
phical area. Or, to take a case where only the 
species of a single genus are concerned. The rats 
and mice proper constitute a genus which comprises 
altogether more than 100 species, and they are all 
exclusively restricted to the Old World. In the 
New World they are represented by another genus 
comprising about 70 species, which resemble their 
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