THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 21 



that does not prove his contention ; but I think it does prove most 

 conclusively the extreme probability there is that we have in our 

 catalogues an abundance of so called Species, that are not one whit 

 better Species in Nature than those varieties of the dog. 



So I conclude ; — that Species is a natural division in Nature, 

 and absolutely permanent in the line of descent. 



That fertile progeny is an unmistakable evidence of oneness of 

 Species. 



That a Species is not necessarily one in size, form and color. 

 True, it may be an individual form that has maintained its appear- 

 ance, from its first origin to the present, unchanged, but that it is far 

 more likely to be a great number of various forms that have been 

 moulded, modified and diversified, in a thousand ways since its first 

 origin, and no one of these various forms is entitled to claim the 

 term to the exclusion of any one of the others, for each and all of 

 them are required to complete the Species as it is in Nature. 



That determination of Species by structure is artificial, and, 

 from the very nature of things, uncertain. So a Species may gene- 

 rally be regarded as a group of more or less distinct forms, the 

 origin of whose diversity may be involved in obscurity at the present 

 day. 



The question of origin belongs to the domain of philosophy 

 rather than that of science, but science has demonstrated that no 

 spontaneous origin of life has been found. Yet there was a time 

 when life did not exist on this globe, so that it must have originated 

 in some way ; but life being granted, Species has to be as a matter 

 of course, if life is to be permanent, for every form, no matter how 

 low in the scale of being it may be, is perpetuated by ordinary gen- 

 eration in some way, and each Species perpetuates its own kind only, 

 and never any other. But whether the Species of the present origi- 

 nated by a miracle of creation, and have been modified by the ex- 

 ternal influences of ages, eras and epochs, until they appear as we 

 see them ; or by a progressive succession of miracles of transmuta- 

 tion, until they have arrived at what they are, does not seem to matter 

 much, for miracle it would be in either case, because transmutation 

 is in just as direct violation of the laws of Nature, as we know 

 them, as creation is. But if science can say negatively that Species is 

 not self originating, it can never say positively they originated by 

 miracle, for that belongs to the supernatural, of which science can 



