100 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



far more perfectly than did Nature. Sir Joseph Hooker, again, 

 observes that no other theory explains so many of the facts 

 connected with the distribution of plants in oceanic islands, 

 of which he specially instances the Canaries, Azores, and St. 

 Helena in the Atlantic, and Kerguelen in the South Indian 

 Ocean. 



In the five or six great plans on which the animal kingdom is 

 constructed Darwin saw only the hidden bond of inheritance. 

 Thus he explained the similarity of pattern in the hand of Man, 

 in the flipper of Seal, and in the wing of Bat. It is hopeless to 

 account for these by utility or the doctrine of final causes 

 (Teleology), and Owen admits this. Darwin explained this by 

 the Natural Selection of successive slight modifications, and 

 showed that however much modified there would be no tendency 

 to alter the framework of bones. Why, he asks, should similar 

 bones have been created in the formation of the wing and leg of 

 a Bat, used as they are for such totally different purposes ; that 

 a bird like a Thrush (Dipper) should have been created to dive 

 and feed on subaquatic insects ? Why should teeth have been 

 created in young calves that never cut the gums, or in Guinea- 

 pigs that shed them before they are born ; and that teeth should 

 be present in young Finner Whales when the adult animal is 

 toothless ? 



On the contrary, with regard to classification his antagonists 

 hold that from the beginning there could have been no com- 

 munity of origin between the several branches of the animal 

 kingdom, since they are founded on different plans of structure, 

 and so with the subordinate groups. 



Darwin is charged with denying the existence of design in 

 the material universe. In one chapter he says : — " If our reason 

 bids us admire with enthusiasm a multitude of inimitable con- 

 trivances in Nature, this same reason tells us, though we may 

 easily err on both sides, that some contrivances are less perfect. 

 Can we consider the sting of the bee as perfect which, when 

 used against many attacking animals, cannot be withdrawn, 

 owing to its backward serratures, and so inevitably causes the 

 death of the insect by tearing out its viscera?" This passage 

 has been cited in accusing him of sneering at the designs of 

 Providence, and in denying any agency beyond that of a blind 



