6 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



While, no doubt, a more perfect geological record would 

 provide us with wonderful information, yet it is suggested 

 that very large gaps in the road would still remain to be 

 explained. For it is our belief that Nature does take leaps, 

 small and large, and our purpose is to show this. Modifica- 

 tion is in its essence always sudden. 



It is the fundamental architectural plan of living types 

 with which we shall deal, and the following questions serve 

 to indicate the direction of our theory: — 



How is it that in Nature we have living Individuals 

 composed of separate, independent cells or protoplasts, 

 alongside of other Individuals composed of long filaments 

 or single-celled series ? How is it that there are Individuals 

 composed of many separate little cylinders or tubes, each 

 built up of cells united in tissue-continuity ? Or how have 

 been produced Individuals composed of many such tubes 

 united together ? 



Or what of the organism with a central tube leading 

 to radially arranged chambers, or of the colony composed 

 of many such organisms united in continuity ? 



These are fundamental questions, and they can be 

 answered in harmony with our common principle, and, be 

 it noted, through a study of present-day living types and 

 not through the geological record. 



It is through the Individual types of present-day living 

 Continuity that the main features of Evolution's main road 

 can rise before us, a true classification of living organisms 

 be made in terms of living Continuity, and the Fundamental 

 be distinguished from the Sub-species. 



D. R. 



