246 
ORGANIC DEATH. 
Nov., 1890. 
now in progress, adorning the world with brilliant blossoms, 
chiefly on plants of smaller size, shrubs and herbs, and 
creepers. 
There is assuredly considerable evidence that in organic 
groups, as well as in individuals, this sequence of change is 
constant. It would be more convincing if we were able to 
trace it in species, or even in genera. There are, indeed, 
certain indications of it in some few genera, as for instance, 
in the Pelican, the present form of which is distinctly smaller 
than the remains of an apparently identical bird found in the 
fens of England. The existing European Crane, also, is 
smaller than the form of which bones are found in some 
French caves. So also the Norwegian Elk is not so large as 
its giant ancestors, nor the Elephant as its predecessor, the 
Mammoth. But whether with this frequent decrease of size 
there is associated a greater proportion of muscular power, or 
of intelligence, there is scarcely sufficient evidence to show. 
In the case of the Dodo, a gigantic pigeon, all the records 
seem to indicate that it was a heavy, stupid creature, the 
extinction of which was largely due to its want of activity and 
intelligence ; and so far it corroborates the supposition that 
gigantic size represents an early phase of development, before 
the muscular or nervous tissues have reached maturity. 
But if the evidence in favour of a uniform scheme of 
organic change is weak, I think the evidence to the contrary 
is still weaker. Has any group, animal or vegetable, begun 
with large, bony forms, changed into small and muscular 
ones, and then returned to the condition of giants ? 
Are any of our modern cellular cryptogams the descendants 
of forms which have ever possessed woody trunks or true 
foliage, or brilliant flowers ? 
There may be instances of degeneration, but the characters 
lost are superficial, and do not go so far as a reversion from 
one of the primary stages to a previous one. 
Taking all the evidence together, I think it points to the 
probability that there is one uniform law at the bottom of all 
organic progress; and that this law operates in species, 
genera, orders, and kingdoms, as constantly as in individuals. 
It is a law of periodicity, a fundamental condition of organic 
life, in obedience to which every individual and every group 
must go through a definite and predetermined career, pre¬ 
determined by the condition of its originating germ, and must 
finally die without reference to any external cause. 
This does not of course imply that all organisms accomplish 
their nredetermined career. Multitudes are killed nrema- 
* ^ 
turelv. The number which die are indeed but a minute 
