GENERATION. 



vit!i whom nothing is difficult, forms the machine : he has 

 arranged dead matttr, in ctinformily with hi.i pr>;vious 

 defigns, and according to tlic archetype fixed by liis wif- 

 doni, before t!ie accefiion of tlie influence funiifncd by the 

 male. In the fame wav you may have in plants a perfeft 

 flower, capfules, and well-formed feeds, differing from frtiit- 

 ful feeds only in the circumftance, that they would not 

 grow into a new plant. The metamorphofes of infetls 

 have been adduced in fupport of this notion of evolution : 

 tl'.e butterHv, fo entirely different from the chryfp.lis, was 

 entirely contained in the former, and needed only to be 

 d'fengaged by the removal of the fl:in, and hav; its parts 

 .enfolded. The rudiments of tlie- tracheir:, which are to 

 contain air in the bee, exifl ia the fatty fvibilance of the 

 worm from which the perfect infeft is formed, and nu- 

 merous examples of a lirnilar defcription might be adduced. 

 The phenomenon of incubation, and the fucceffive ap- 

 pearance of various pavLs until the whole animal is com- 

 pleted, afford a convincing argument for the hypothefis 

 of evolution. After recou!iting the gradual and progref- 

 iive uufolding of the body of the chicken, Haller obierves, 

 that the progrefs is nearly the fame in quadrupeds. " In 

 the human fcctu?, which at firll feems a mere unorganized 

 inafs, Lteuv.'enhoeck. already difcerned, by means of his 

 n-.icrofcopes, diilincl organi/alion. Thus it is clear, that 

 an animal without any hmbs, or difcernible arrangem.ent 

 of parts, is gradually changed by various ilagcs into a 

 perfeft being, nourilhtd by food, and ful'ceptible of volun- 

 tary motion. It may be inquired, whether the animalcule, 

 before it can be recognized by the fenfes of the diffeftor, 

 exifts in the father or the mother : whether it were formed 

 by epigenefis, or the fucceffive union of particles ; or 

 fuddenly produced. Epigenefis is altogether impoflible. 

 Whoever has contemplated the ifru£ture of the body 

 with a little attention, mull be convinced that an animal 

 could not exift without a heart, fince the principle of life 

 and mo. ion exifts in that organ. But the heart mufl be 

 furniflied with arteries to carry the vital fluid to all parts, 

 and with veins to carry it back again. 



It is eafily proved that the foetus does not confift of a 

 mere flvcleton of blood-veffels. Vifcera muft accompany 

 thcfc, of which, v/ith fome cellular fubftance, they are 

 entirely compofcd. But no one has fecn the vifcera com- 

 poicd by particles fucceflivcly depofited : they are perfeft, 

 although Imall, as foon as they can be difcerned. Muf- 

 cles mull have been prefent from the firft : for the young 

 animal, in the incubated egg, is capable of motion, and 

 from its llraight ftate bends the body. It is moreover 

 irritable, and mull confequently have mufcles, although they 

 are concealed under the appearance of a mere gelatine. The 

 head is large, and the eyes are vlfible among the firfl parts, 

 together with the heart. The mufcles require the preience 

 of Mcrves, the brain mufl have been prefent with the head 

 and heart." The hypothefis then, to which thefe argu- 

 ments lead, is, that the perfeft animal exiils previoufly to 

 conception; that nothing now is generated, but that tlie 

 part.-;, «hich were folded up, and contracted into a fmall 

 fpace, arc expanded, unfolded, enlarged, and rendered 

 confpicuous. In this mode of explication, we mull, it 

 leem.s, admit, that the germs of all the human race, as 

 well thofe who have already lived, as thofe who may here- 

 after be born, were contained in the ovaria of live : a 

 propofition of fo flrange a nature, and fo completely un- 

 fufceptible of proof, that we cannot value very higlily the 

 hypothefis, which renders it neceffary. 



The pre -organized germ would remain in a kind of torpid 

 ilate in its ovari.tn receptacle, were it not llimulated by the 

 Vol. XVI. 



male femen. This fluid roufes it from it* lethargy, and 

 caufcs its growth and developement. The flimulating 

 properties of the fcmcn are fuppofed by Haller to ezcile 

 the motion of the heart ; and he concc.'/es that the 

 fubfequent developement of the new being is eafily under- 

 flood. 



The great re^utatio:i of Haller has not however gained 

 to his opinions on this fubieft univerfal alTent. The accu- 

 rate aiid well-informed Blumenbach of Gottingcu h;i-, 

 oppoled the hypothefis of evolution with great effcft, and 

 has arrayed againfl it a number of objeclions, whicli its 

 advocates « ill not eafily elude. His opinions on tliis fuh- 

 jetl are, on the whole, tlie mofl rational that have been 

 hitherto promulgated : the following Ilatement of them is 

 derived from his manual of natural liiftory, and his infti- 

 tutej of phyfiolog)-. « The hypothefis of evolution has 

 been employed, pai'ticulariy in modern times in order to ex- 

 plain the origin of organized bodies ; it has beenliated that 

 no man, no other animal, and no plant is generated, but that 

 they have all exifted in their parents and anccffors, in the 

 ilate of complete previoully formed germs, fince tJ;-:: firfl 

 creation. The various generations have beeiT continued, 

 one within the other, hke ? feries of pill-boxes, and have 

 been only gradually unfolded and brought to light bv 

 fecundation, in their refpeftive turns." Haller, who was 

 the leader of the modern evoiutionifts, roundiv afferted, 

 " that the vifcera, and all the bones of the future fcetus, 

 exill before conception in the maternal germ, but nearly in 

 a fluid ilate, and therefore inviiible." This opinion mull be 

 deemed, on the fnil view of it, irreconcileable with reafon, 

 on account of the fuppofition involved in it, of the ufe- 

 lefi cre.ition of innumerable germs, which are never to be 

 evolved ; and it is utterly at variance with all chafte and found 

 phyfiohigical reafoning, on account of the great aid which 

 it requires from preternatural agency, and the ufelefs 

 complication of natural powers which it fuppofes in 

 oppofition to all the laws of philofophical invelligation. 

 According to the unanimous reprefentations of the mofl ce- 

 lebrated and zealous advocates of evolution, the pre-organ- 

 ized germs lie ready in the mother, are roufed at the time 

 of fecundation, and proceed to their developement by thi& 

 agency of the male feminal fluid. What we call conception 

 is, therefore, nothing but the excitation of the torpid germ 

 by the affufion of the male liquor. Here then, in the firfl 

 place, we mull fuppofe an exciting power. But children 

 often refemble moil flrikingly their father only: bitches, 

 after copulating with different dogs, often have puppies re- 

 fembling their different fathers : two individuals of different 

 races, as a Negro and an European, produce together off- 

 fpring of a middle charafter, or a mulatto : and, where the 

 fpecies of animals or plants is different, mongrels are pro- 

 duced, having as many charafters of the father's formation as 

 of the mother's. All thefe fncls cannot be overlooked ; 

 and, in order to account for them, the evoiutionifts fuppofe 

 in the femen, in addition to its exciting influence, a forma- 

 tive power, by which it can change the prc-organized germ 

 contained in the mother into fomcthing of the form of the fa- 

 ther. Thus we find two powers in the femen, an exciting, 

 and a formative one. But, by means of an artificial hybrid 

 impregnation, repeated through feveral generations, we can, 

 at la!l, change one fpecies of organized bodies entirely into 

 another. One fpecies of plant, fecundated with the male 

 dull of another, produced feeds, from which hybrid fe- 

 cundable plants were produced. Thefe were again fecun- 

 dated with dull of the fame m.alo plant ; and, after this had 

 been repeated four times, a complete metamorphofis had 

 taken place, by which the cliarafters of tlie male were fub- 

 K llituteii 



