262 



FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



March, 1834. 



Our conception of a compound animal,* where in some 

 respects the individuality of each is not completed, may be 

 aided, by reflecting on the production of two distinct crea- 

 tures by bisecting one with a knife, or where nature herself 

 performs the task. We may consider the polypi in a 

 zoophyte, or the buds in a tree, as cases where the division of 

 the individual has not been completely effected. In this 

 kind of generation, the individuals seem produced only with 

 relation to the present time ; their numbers are multiplied, 

 but their life is not extended beyond a fixed period. By the 

 other, and more artificial kind, through intermediate steps or 

 ovules, the relation is kept up through successive ages. By 

 the latter method many peculiarities, which are transrriitted 

 by the former, are obliterated, and the character of the spe- 

 cies is limited ; while on the other hand, certain peculiarities 

 (doubtless adaptations) become hereditary and form races. 

 We may fancy that in these two circumstances we see a 

 step towards the final cause of the shortness of life. 



* With regard to associated life, animals of otlier classes besides the 

 molhisca and radiata present obscure instances of it. The bee could not 

 live by itself. And in the neuter, we see an individual produced which is 

 not fitted for the reproduction of its kind — that highest point at which 

 the organization of all animals, especially the lower ones, tends — there- 

 fore such neuters are born as much for the good of the community, as the 

 leaf-bud is for the tree. 



