Vestiges of Creation. 961 



articulate as an instance of the simple form of animal life, to which 

 creation, according to his views, is exclusively confined ; he will find 

 by a reference to his own labours, that his hypothesis does not create 

 animals so high in the scale as an Acarus ; and he will also recollect, 

 after a moment's reflection, that if Mr. Crosse could create Acari, the 

 progressive development hypothesis would be at once superseded, at 

 least as far as the Articulata are concerned ; we need not trace our 

 parentage to monads, the relationship might be allowed to cease 

 with mites. 



" There is another series of facts akin to the above, and which 

 deserve not less attention. The pig, in its domestic state, is subject 

 to the attacks of a hydatid, from which the wild animal is free, hence 

 the disease called measles in pork. The domestication of the pig is 

 of course an event subsequent to the origin of man ; indeed, compa- 

 ratively speaking, a recent event. Whence, then, the first progenitor 

 of this hydatid ? So also there is a Tinea which attacks dressed wool, 

 but which never touches it in its unwashed state. A particular insect 

 disdains all food but chocolate, and the larva of Oinopota cellaris 

 lives nowhere but in wine and beer, all these being articles manufac- 

 tured by man. There is likewise a creature called the Pymelodes 

 cyclopum, which is only found in subterranean cavities connected with 

 certain specimens of the volcanic formation in South America, dating 

 from a time posterior to the arrangements of the earth for our species." 

 — p. 186. 



The case of the Tinea, or wool moth, we can disprove, since both 

 the species which feed on woollen cloths are particularly injurious to 

 wool in the fleece, so much so, indeed, that farmers often hurry the 

 wool into a bad market, to their great loss, rather than incur the greater 

 loss incidental to the attack of these destructive insects. The hydatid 

 of the pig very probably thrives best on the animal whose flesh may 

 be in an unnatural state from over-feeding, but how can the writer 

 prove it does not exist in the wild boar ? The absence of that pecu- 

 liar disease, incidental to occurrence in great numbers, only goes to 

 show that the natural state of the pig is not favourable to the exces- 

 sive increase of the parasite : it does not touch on the question of its 

 existence or non-existence. With regard to the other instances, they 

 prove nothing more than that certain living beings occur in certain 

 situations, and under certain conditions, not that they occur in no 

 other situations, or under no other conditions. We build houses and 

 towns, we never think of stocking them with rats, or mice, or cock- 

 roaches, yet how often do these animals take possession, and divide 



