i 882 .'J 
199 
The “Species” Wav Reopened. 
animals altogether are inferior to the lower in fecundity, in 
hardiness, and in earliness of maturity, — in short, in the 
very points which Natural Selection would have developed. 
“ These characters are of such a nature that they would 
remain beneficial to the creature under any conceivable 
change of circumstances.” The author even adds, “ An 
hypothesis of retrogression would probably be more con- 
sistent with natural selection than one of progress.” This 
view — which by the way has been adopted by an American 
author — Mr. Pusey considers incompatible with the palaeon- 
tological and ontological evidence. 
From the following passage we must express our dissent 
in toto : — “ In one most important part of the animal king- 
dom, however, a consistent evolutionist will be forced by 
ontogeny to assume retrogression where progress has 
hitherto been assumed. I allude to the anthropoid apes 
whose young are much more like man than the adults are 
afterwards ; and we must therefore suppose, unless we give 
up the idea hitherto maintained by nearly all Evolutionists, 
and which is one of the main bulwarks of the development 
theory, that the growth of the individual pictures in miniature 
the growth of the race, — we must suppose that these are 
degenerated from a human or semi-human condition.” The 
faCts of the case are thus : the infant mias and the infant 
man are more like each other than the adults of the two 
species. As they grow older they are developed in different 
directions, and consequently diverge from each other — a 
phenomenon which to us seems strong evidence in favour of 
Evolution, and of which the study of embryology affords 
countless instances, species glaringly unlike when mature 
being with difficulty distinguishable in the early stages of 
foetal existence. 
In animal geography the author is not always a safe guide. 
He writes — “ But New Zealand is not properly an oceanic 
island. It was recently connected with Australia. Then why 
has it no native mammal instead of being full of marsupials?” 
But though New Zealand was at one time doubtless much 
more extensive than it now is, the whole character of 
its Fauna and Flora negatives the supposition that it has 
been recently connected with Australia. For instance, while 
Australia abounds in serpents, New Zealand has none. Mr. 
Pusey says — “ Since the time when Darwin wrote that 
Batrachia were never found in oceanic islands tree-frogs 
have been identified in the Fiji group. The same [what ?] 
may be said of the land tortoises of the Galapagos. But 
the most instructive instance in this respeCt, perhaps, is that 
