Evolution and Degeneration. 121 



132. And not for Darwinism alone. It is only 

 fair to state, that evolution of the wider, higher kind 

 which introduces into its subject some Ev . . 

 evolving principle of progress from non- and Degen- 

 life to life, and from the lowest forms eration - 

 of cell-life to the highest complex organisms, goe«s 

 two ways, and every way, no less than Darwinism; 

 it goes up and down. The upward form is com- 

 monly called Evolution; the downward form is 

 technically styled Catagenesis, or Degeneration. 

 Hence they are found blended together, and a com- 

 posite theory is formed of evolution upwards supple- 

 mented by downward phases of Catagenesis, tharfks 

 to the genius of Dohrn and Lankester. So that by 

 combining a tree of ascent with a tree of descent, 

 one with its roots below in spontaneous generation, 

 according to Professor Haeckel, and thence shooting 

 upwards to man, the other with its roots upwards in 

 consciousness or sensibility, according to Professor 

 Cope, and thence running down to the amphioxus 

 and the ascidian, and " the polar tensions of chem- 

 ism," a perfect spectacle is exhibited of the ascent 

 of species, or descent, or both at the same time, 

 like a mirage in the desert. Argumentation like 

 this, in the anatomy of a system, makes it quite as 

 interesting a specimen for study as the rudimentary 

 teeth of the fcetal whale, or the legs with which the 

 boa cannot run away, or the wings with which the 

 ostrich cannot fly. Provisionally, we might sub- 

 scribe so far to the Darwinian doctrine of rudi- 



