434 Procr.edinc/s of the Asiatic Society. [No. 4, 



groimds and by Mr. Darwin on geological grounds ;) and even were it 

 granted, as it might be theoretically, that such isolated stations may 

 occasionally have been formed, until we can ascertain the period at 

 which they were first populated, and can assert that no possible 

 accidental tran sport of eggs, seeds, &c. would account for that popu- 

 lation, the inference drawn by Dr. Bronn would be by no means 

 legitimate. 



In some other points, it appeared that Dr. Bronn had laid too 

 much stress upon negative evidence as e. g. in the ninth of the 

 secondary laws, but as this had no important bearing on the principal 

 object of the paper, viz. a comparison of Dr. Bronn's laws with 

 Mr. Darwin's theory of natural selection, it need not be further 

 alluded to. 



Setting aside the assumption of independent faunas and floras, as 

 unproved in any case and at variance with the tendency of our 

 present knowledge, the laws evolved by Dr. Bronn were stated to be 

 in cióse accordance with the requirements of Mr. Darwin's theory. 

 With respect to the formal portion of Dr. Bronn's first fundamental 

 law, (i. e. the fact of progression, apart from any hypothesis of a 

 forcé,) very little had been said by Mr. Darwin ; his only reference 

 to it being to the following effect, viz. : — the higher forms have 

 their organs more distinctly specialized for diíferent functions ; 

 and as such división of physiological labour seems to be an advantage 

 to each being, natural selection will tend in so far to make the later 

 and more modified forms higher than their early progenitors, or than 

 the slightly modified descendants of such progenitors.* This view 

 appeared to be identical with that taken by Dr. Bronn in the majority 

 of cases, as enunciated in Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10 of his secondary laws. 

 In No. 11, indeed something more is indicated, viz. a progression of 

 type, independent, or apparently independent of external conditions, 

 and referred somewhat vaguely to an unknown forcé ; but this was 

 scarcely necessary, and the phenomenon of progression according 

 to embryonic types, the progression from general to specialized 

 forms, which had been admitted by Agassiz, Owen, Carpenter and 

 others, as having obtained in past times, was perfectly and most 

 simply explained by Mr. Darwin's theory. 



* Origin of species, p. 336. 



