342 DESIGN IN NATURE 



similar facts already recorded when describing the amoeba, gromia, parameoium, and collared monad, pomt to 

 a finality in Uving things ; each animal, be it high or low, being perfect in itself — in other words, supreme in its 



own sphere. 



The zooid and monad, in this sense, are as complete as any of the higher animals, although they have neither 

 brain, nerves, muscles, stomachs, lungs, nor hearts. 



In the lowest plants and animals, the intelligence of the Creator can be traced. In the higher and highest 

 plants and animals the power of self-direction and government is gradually and in fuller measure transmitted to the 

 individuals themselves, but even in the latter the divine guidance is never wholly withdrawn. Nothing is left to 

 chance in plants and animals, and intelhgence reigns supreme throughout the whole organic kingdom. Proof of 

 this is to be found in the fact that miUions of bacteria, microbes, and other low forms are incessantly at work 

 preparing the earth, the water, and the air as fit habitations for the more advanced plant and animal forms up to 

 man himself. 



The preparation here referred to fixes the boundaries to plants and animals ahke ; it determines their sphere of 

 action, and the modifications which they may undergo within those spheres so as to secure the most perfect 

 adaptation of means to ends under all possible circumstances. 



The whole organic kingdom is conditioned and under control, and boundaries are set to every change which 

 occurs in it. The same remark apphes to the inorganic kingdom. All matter, living and dead, is controlled. The 

 universe is an involved, intricate system of action and reaction, but everything is foreseen and provided for. There 

 is no lack of matter or force or of intelligence anywhere. If there were, the inevitable result would be confusion on an 

 unprecedentedly extensive scale. There would be an end to the Law, Order, and Design which everywhere appear. 

 The universe, as we know it, is a conditioned universe, and the Intelhgence which created it in the remote past per- 

 vades every part of it at the present day. Matter and space are pervaded by intelhgence, and the harmony which 

 everywhere obtains is only secured by a rigid adherence to law and order, even in the minutest details. Without 

 a presiding intelhgence, everything would assuredly suddenly cease and determine. All this points to gradation 

 and type and finality and law in the ultimate sense. 



In order to adequately reahse the question of gradation and type in rudimentary plants and animals, and in 

 order to trace successfully the similarity between crystals, plants, and animals, it is necessary to go into the subject 

 in detail and at considerable length, as has been done by the aid of numerous plates and figures, which will be found 

 scattered throughout the entire work. The illustrations cover a wide area, but it is hoped they will supply in a 

 concrete form much valuable information of a not readily available kind. 



§ 66. Animals specially constructed as Air-breathers and Water-breathers, and for Land, Water, and 

 Air Transit. 



It is all but certain from the geological record and the modern fauna that animals were originally created as 

 air-breathers and water-breathers. It is equally probable that they were primarily endowed with organs of loco- 

 motion adapted to the land, the water, and the air respectively. Both these contentions seem proved by the 

 fact that no known animals are at once habitual air-breathers and habitual water-breathers. There is, however, 

 an approach to this state of things. The climbing perch {ArMbas scandens) can leave the water for considerable 

 periods and ascend elevations ; the goby or walking-fish {Perio-phthalmus koelreuteri), with its short, well-developed 

 anterior limbs or modified pectorals and tail, hobbles about the shore, when the tide has retired, in search of food ; 

 the flying-fish takes long leaps in the air at a considerable altitude above the water ; the African mud-fish, Lepi- 

 dosiren (Protopterus annectens), lives for protracted periods in the deposits of rivers and tanks which have become 

 partly or wholly dry. 



Wilder noticed that in the mud-fish (Amia calva) the animal, when the water was foul, rose frequently to the 

 surface and took in copious draughts of air. He gave it as his opinion that, on such occasions, an exchange of oxygen 

 and carbonic acid took place, as in the air-breathing lungs of vertebrates. 



Ceratodus {C. forsteri KrefEt., and C. miolepis Gilnth.) is foxrnd in the fresh waters of Queensland. This fish, 

 known as the Dawson-salmon or Barramunda, is sometimes 6 feet in length, and occasionally weighs 20 lbs. It 

 lives mainly on decayed vegetation, which is found in large quantities in the bottoms of the rivers, and which frequently 

 makes the water turbid and thick. This renders it difficult for the fish to breathe by its gills, which become 

 clogged. It is, therefore, provided with a lung in addition to its gills, so that it can breathe by its gills or limg 

 separately or by both simultaneously. This is a very remarkable circumstance, and must have been foreseen and 

 pre-determined. It affords a very good example of design and of a First Cause. The modification is of the nature 

 of original endowment, that is, a particular structural change specially made to meet an unusual set of conditions. 



