THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 151 



centipede and Man have clearly originated at different 

 periods from distinct aqueous segmental species. 



Our views might be put in tabular form (p. 152). In 

 the table the terrestrial organisms are represented as having 

 sprung directly from the main road, but it is possible that 

 some of their aqueous primitive types occupied places in 

 the aqueous side-lines. This we believe to be the case as 

 regards terrestrial Continuously Zooidal Individuals. 



The left column, identical with the middle column of lost 

 primitive types as regards Continuity, is in complete existence 

 in the sea at the present day. The types in the right column, 

 of land organisms, at present existing, do not make a complete 

 chain. There is no gradual transition, but a leap from 

 one form of Continuity to the next, or from each link of the 

 chain to the next ; but this is regular in the left column, 

 whereas in the right one the chain, really a false chain, is 

 wanting in many links. 



This provides us with an explanation of the great gaps 

 in the chain of Evolution which are so puzzling ; for Evolu- 

 tion being fundamentally the evolution of Continuity by 

 multiplication, the complexity of each succeeding type is 

 increased at a bound. Natura non facit saltum is clearly 

 untrue. 



We must remember that, apart from accidental preserva- 

 tion in a fossil state, no organism is preserved except through 

 its descendants. Many of its characters may not be preserved 

 at all, owing to evolution, or it may be, devolution. This is 

 the price demanded by Discontinuity. For just as the 

 discontinuous unicellular organism is an evanescent stage 

 in the evolution of a discontinuously multicellular Individual 

 cycle and vanishes into the further stages it " becomes," 

 so in the larger cycle of Natural Evolution the discontinuous 

 Individual itself disappears as an evanescent stage in the 

 production of other Individuals. The actual road of evolu- 

 tion which has been traversed is always wiped out unless 

 some special factor intervenes to preserve it ; and this is 

 true of side-roads as well as of the main road. Under 

 natural conditions the only record is the form last produced. 



This law, however, in no way interferes with the preser- 

 vation of the main types of Continuity, for special factors 



