REMARKS ON MR DARWIN S THEORY. 
T33 
by trying to show that there are reasons for believing that a kmit 
does exist somewhere. The following are the most important ones 
that have been brought forward to this effect. 
1. All varieties made by man, if left to themselves, show a tendency 
to revert to the original forms ; while natural species do not. 
2. All varieties made by man interbreed freely, while natural species 
do not. 
3. Species remain constant for immense periods of time, as is 
proved by the exact resemblance of the mummies of Egypt, 
and many fossils, to living forms. 
4. Some genera, as Lingula, &c., have existed with veiy little varia- 
tion from the most ancient times to the present. 
5. Instead of progressing, some animals seem to have degenerated ; 
as the recent armadillo from the glyptodon, &c. 
6. We have no right to argue on domestic breeds, since they have 
been chosen on account of their plasticity. 
I will now give answers that have been made ta these objections. 
1. It cannot be proved that many of our domestic animals revert 
to their original forms when left to themselves ; for it has 
always been Ibund impossible to say what their original forms 
were : but if this was the case, a simple experiment would 
decide. Recent varieties certainly do show this tendency, 
because of the extremely short time during which selection has 
been going on ; and the rapidity, owing to artificial causes, in 
which the change took place. In a wild state the changes 
progress very slowly by natural causes, and therefore by the 
time a variety has changed sufficiently to be called a new 
species, it has given up all thought (if I may so express myself) 
of reverting to its original form. 
2. " ]VIan can hardly, or only wath great difficulty, select any devia- 
tion of structure, except such as are externally visible, and he 
rarely cares for what is internal." Besides, the varieties 
formed by man have only been in existence for a few thousand 
years, while natural species have been so for hundreds of 
thousands ; for until they have been formed long enough to 
deviate markedly from other species they are only called 
varieties. 
3. The answer to this argument is that they have not yet had time 
to change, omng to their conditions of life not having been 
much altered. The mummies of Egypt are perhaps four 
thousand years old, but Mr. L. Horner, the President of the 
Geological Society, has shown that man, sufficiently civilized 
to manufacture pottery, existed in the valley of the Nile thirteen 
or fom'teen thousand years ago. And the same with the fossils; 
as we go further back in time we see living forms get rarer 
and rarer until at last they die out altogether. If a form 
has managed to exist for a long time mthout change, it is 
