120 Species; or, Darwinism. 



a somewhat analogous argument, and draw the con- 

 sequence clearly, in the terms of Carl Vogt: then 

 he will see what his own premises prove. In Eu- 

 rope and America, there are two parallel and inde- 

 pendent lines of horses coming down from remote 

 geological ages. These races of horses are of like 

 structure. Consequently, by evolution, they should 

 have had a common origin; just as our friend is re- 

 ferring the rudimentary organ in one type to a 

 common origin with the perfect organ in another, 

 simply because they are alike. Vogt affirms that 

 the facts are quite otherwise. The more one re- 

 cedes into geological ages, among the fossils of 

 these horses, the more does he find the races reced- 

 ing from one another; so that far from having di- 

 verged, on leaving a common ancestor in the past, 

 they have converged from different origins, and 

 merely assumed a common type in the present. I 

 quote these observations from the Revue des Ques- 

 tions Scie7itifiques for April, 1887, under the head, 

 Monophyletism; and they are useful not only for 

 gauging this rudimentary argument, but also for 

 suggesting a fitting reflection on Professor Huxley's 

 series of horses, and " their demonstrative evidence 

 of evolution" (No. 121). The whole argumentation 

 on the rudiments is either that of a false analogy, 

 or the fallacy of explaining the unknown and ob- 

 scure by what is more so; pretending to prove and 

 not doing so. Still it passes current in science as 

 a proof good enough for Darwinism, 



