DESIGN IN THE REPRODUCTION AND GROWTH OF ANIMALS 371 



§ 71. Design as Manifested in the Reproduction and Growth of Animals. 



Strong arguments for design are furnished by a consideration of the important subjects of reproduction and 

 growth in animals. These require separate and detailed treatment. The peculiarity of reproduction consists in 

 its spontaneous and independent nature ; the changes which occur during the process being self-inaugurated and 

 resulting in prospective structures and functions necessary to the adult individual. The self -induced changes and 

 transformations are means to ends, but the causes and the effects are beyond the ken of the parents, and must be 

 referred to the intelligent action of a First Cause. The most simple and complicated changes are equally under 

 guidance, and chains of events, sometimes highly intricate and involved, occur in unvarying sequence, and in such a 

 manner as can only be explained by design. This is very evident in the reproduction of the more highly differentiated 

 animals. In mammals, for example (and what is true of them is relatively true of other hving things), the heart 

 which is to propel the blood is formed before blood is admitted into it ; the stomach and aUmentary canal are 

 formed before food is eaten ; the lungs and chest are formed before air is breathed ; and the bones and muscles 

 are formed before walking is attempted. 



Structure precedes fimction ; but the structures and functions are not determined by the substances with 

 which they have to deal, or on which they are to act : the blood is not the prime mover of the heart ; the food does 

 not set up the vermicular movements of the intestine ; the atmosphere does not occasion the rhythmic movements 

 of the chest ; the ground does not produce the movements of walking, the water of swimming, or the air of flying. 



In hving things (plants and animals ahke), the structures and organs, be they simple or complex, are formed 

 for a purpose, and they are formed independently, and in anticipation, so to speak, of their life work. The roots 

 and leaves of the plant are pushed out, aggressively as it were, to obtain nutritious saps ; and the feeding apphances 

 of animals are advanced voluntarily to seize, incorporate, and assimilate food. 



Plants and animals, and everything outside of them, are related as subject and object ; the subject being pro- 

 duced from, but not by, the object. The subject, as a rule, is superior to and dominates the object. The subject 

 as here employed is aggressive and active ; the object being quiescent and passive. The subject must have some- 

 thing outside of itself to work upon ; that something being the object. The subject would have no raison d'etre 

 as apart from its natural or appropriate object. The subject and object are complemental ; the one being made 

 for and adapted to the other. The subject consists of living matter, as seen more especially in animals, where there 

 is usually a shght admixture of sensation, perception, or consciousness. The object, on the other hand, is composed 

 of dead matter such as we behold in the physical universe, where no traces of sensation, perception, or any attribute 

 of mind can be detected. 



The subject acts, the object is acted upon. There is a tendency in the present day to reverse this natural order 

 of things, and to refer all the activities of plants and animals to mechanical arrangements as apart from life, and 

 as apart from a First Cause, and design. The mechanical school regards living things as mere automata, and attri- 

 butes all structure and all function to the play of natural forces and blind chance operating on brut matter. They 

 claim law and order for the universe, while they practically exclude and deny the First Cause ; that is, the directive 

 agency on which everything depends. 



Nothing, perhaps, in the wide range of the organic kingdom can convey a more elevated conception of the powers 

 and possibihties of life than the several processes concerned in reproduction. Here there can be no question of innate 

 abihty on the part of every living thing to work out its own destiny as apart from every form of environment, 

 irritation, and outside stimulation. Reproduction is essentially the act of life. It is not dependent on any form of 

 external aid or excitation. Given healthy plants and animals and the necessary conditions of normal life, repro- 

 duction follows in the natural order of things and of necessity. Whatever may be said of other functions, the 

 function of reproduction is assuredly fundamental and traceable to powers inseparable from the hving organism, 

 whether that be simple or complex. It could scarcely be otherwise. If reproduction, which is the most important 

 function of Ufe, were in any way dependent on fortuitous circumstances, there would, in many cases, be a consider- 

 able danger of the extinction of dominant races. 



In certain plants the organs of generation occur in different individuals, and in these instances winds, insects, 

 &c., take an indirect part in the reproductive process. It must, however, be noted that, even in these cases, the 

 extraneous aids do not act as stimuU, but only as media of communication. Moreover, the winds, insects, and other 

 aids to reproduction are all under control, and themselves afford evidences of design. The stimulation in every 

 instance comes from the union of the male and female elements. The union in the majority of cases is followed by 

 fertihsation, which is a vital act. It is important to be clear on this fundamental point. Plants and animals have 

 in themselves the wherewithal to initiate and accompUsh the reproductive process quite apart from all kinds of 

 outside interference. The reproductive acts begin and terminate in hving organisms, and these acts are spontaneous 



