i66 
Origin of Species. 
[March, 
IV. THE “ EGYPTIAN ” ARGUMENT ON THE 
ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 
By J. W. Slater. 
MONG the scientific results of the French Expedition 
to Egypt, under the first Napoleon, was a series ot 
- — observations of the birds and mammals sculptured 
on the most ancient monuments or adtually preserved m the 
state of mummies. On a comparison of these images and 
remains with their living representatives as existing in our 
own days, a very close resemblance or perhaps even an ab- 
solute identity, was perceived. The sacred ibis of this 
nineteenth century might have se ™ ed fr the ‘ ^Taltlhree 
representations of his ancestors chiselled out at least three 
thousand years ago. Hence the inference was drawn by the 
Cuvierian or official school of French naturalists, that, if 
the charadteristic features of animals undergo no change in 
so long a time, species must be regarded as incapable o 
transmutation, and their respeftive differences must be ab- 
SOl A ?thi" d Sntfonhas lately been resuscitated by Dr F. 
Bateman, of Norwich, it may need a brief reconsiderati . 
It cannot escape our notice that this argument rests upon 
certain assumptions which, to say the least, have never been 
proven. The Cuvierians take for granted that because a 
certain phenomenon cannot be shown to have happened 
win f certain interval of time, a» ? >" “WKS 
locality, it can never have happened at all. They ta £ ? 
hold that the modification of species, if it occur at all, must 
proceed constantly at a uniform rate, at all times and in all 
p aces. They assume that the space of three thousand 
Pars forms a sufficient portion of the life of the organic 
world to decide the question. They forget that in Egyp 
the climate and outward circumstances generally have un- 
dergone no perceptible change within historical ages. 
All these considerations have been urged by various 
writers with a view of showing that the evidence of the old 
Egyptian monuments cannot be taken as decisive. 
But there is a further objection which, so far as I am 
aware, has not yet been raised, and which to me a PP*-ars 
utterly fatal. If we take a further glance at the oldest 
