326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



parallel distant strata — though some species appear to characterize 

 strata respectively, yet many range up and down through other than 

 those in which they attain their maximum development, or of which 

 they may be especially characteristic. 



Two difficulties thus arose : the increase of miraculous interfer- 

 ences seemed to increase proportionately their improbability • espe- 

 cially as there was no corroboration this time from the Word of God ; 

 while the fact of species ranging through several strata threw another 

 stumbling-block in the way of the cataclysmic theory ; for either they 

 must have been recreated two or three times, or else lived through 

 the supposed cataclysms considered as designed methods of destruc- 

 tion. 



Another class of phenomena now appeared, to show a still greater 

 difficulty in the way of belief in the creative hypothesis. Zoology, 

 botany, as well as paleontology, gradually increased the number of 

 living and extinct forms almost indefinitely; and in proportion as 

 fresh discoveries were made, so it was found that numbers of forms 

 took up positions, when classified, intermediate to other forms hitherto 

 well distinct — " osculant " or intercalary forms as they are called. 

 These often increased so much, that even genera well marked at first 

 became blended together by transitional or intermediate forms. 



Hence it has come to pass, from the result of this discovery, that 

 so far from forms or types of organisms being easy and of a precise 

 character, in accordance with the idea of each being well defined after 

 his kind, systematic zoology and botany are the most difficult tasks a 

 naturalist can undertake. Here, then, an overwhelming difficulty, 

 only to be fully appreciated by a really scientific person, rises against 

 the conception of each kind having been specially created as we see 

 them now. Indeed, it maybe added that the very idea of kind or spe- 

 cies has been resolved into an abstract conception, finding in Nature 

 generally no more than a relative existence. 



Fresh difficulties were still in store, which must be overcome if the 

 former theory of creation is to obtain any longer — horticulture, flori- 

 culture, agriculture, and the breeding of animals, have rapidly risen to 

 become important and flourishing occupations. From their pursuit it 

 was soon discovered that kinds reproducing their like never did so ab- 

 solutely ,but that offspring appeared always to differ from their parents 

 in some trifling if not considerable degree. This property of Nature, 

 to which also the human race is invariably subject, man has seized 

 upon, and by judicious treatment can almost mould his cattle to what- 

 ever form he pleases, or stock his fields and gardens with roots of any 

 form or with flowers of any shade of color required. After many 

 years of successful propagation, generation after generation, we have 

 now arrived at the result that animals and plants can be produced by 

 careful breeding and selection, which, had they been wild, our earlier 

 naturalists would have undoubtedly regarded as having been respec- 



