512 Phenomena of Ontogenesis [October, 
purposes of decorative art. Statues, mortuary tablets, 
ornamental chimney-pieces, dressing-tables, blocks for 
church-pillars, and many other articles, are now made from 
the clay or stone, and some Mosaic floor-work* in china 
clay, recently manufactured, is considered to rival in appear- 
ance Devonshire alabaster. 
All things being taken into account, we are of opinion that 
if the Cornish clay merchants continue to manifest that sage 
firmness of conduct which has characterised them under 
recent difficulties, their trade will soon emerge from its pre- 
sent depressing crisis and regain its former flourishing con- 
dition, and we strongly urge clay proprieters and all other 
persons interested in the welfare of the manufacturing arts, 
and desirous of profitable investment, to bestow their gravest 
attention on the scheme we have just discussed, by the 
adoption of which the clay business as a whole would, 
beyond a doubt, reach an even higher degree of prosperity 
than it has ever before attained. 
V. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PHENOMENA OF 
ONTOGENESIS IN REFERENCE TO THE 
EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS. 
By J. Huddart, 
t O afford a due appreciation of the importance of the 
relation of individual to racial development it will be 
^ necessary to review briefly some of the leading opinions 
on the Theory of Evolution, and to observe their tendency. 
While most of our biologists and physicists agree that no 
better explanation can be advanced for observed facts than 
that all existing and extinct species of animals and plants 
have been evolved from one or more primordial forms, they 
are by no means in accord as to the agent or agents that 
have effected this evolution. 
The professors of what is commonly known as the Dar- 
winian Theory, but what might be more properly termed 
* Specimens of this description of work in china clay may now be seen in 
the South Kensington Museum. 
