i una bi―nd be if we be indeed improved apes, we LATE as intamorted in car unknown ancestors, VIS 1st, såist in the night of geological antiquity.

But the Lot Bettat is disemation, that with all this bel s I s der the the Thory must have been sistended in the merines if this ancient Incognito, for if is im's va tinire special use to him than they have hed 7: is bespadas, be right to have been triumphant a me strugge die ernstance, as it is always the specially formed uma possessing the greater alvantages, that

mes in the self al exteritates all other compurnes. Stjoreman, it happens that his specially serviceThe tabs were forbis ease; the Theory was diens ha the de vand animal was exterminated, and the fence wise perpetuated: and thus, instead of ar perque Lesstile with lis perfort lbs, we have had bes sens, borkurs, yes, nime!

A me sine me as not to be forgotten that Mr Div : las grit worker wernant of the progenitor of VÖRUVER INTLLis and themfire of car gens, as well as at the animals past named: An indefinite repetition of the sire part de regina is the ovum daracteristic of all New or Carlosznodded forms therefore, we novy readily be1x that the nzin, vn prgmine of the vertebrata pos

w`ch we bare just beer cutting his links are described

tercalate millions of ages between the progenitor of the horse, &c., and the progenitor of the vertebrata, we know not; only on this subject we must repeat what we have already said, that this imaginary progenitor of the vertebrata ruins the whole system, for his appearance on the scene with many vertebræ, ready made, contradicts all that the learned author has inculcated with such careful repetition in his volume-that nature does nothing 'by leaps, and that every peculiar part of every animal is the result of Natural Selection's labours in an immense allowance of time.

And from this there is no escape, for if the animal in question was THE PROGENITOR of the vertebrata, he could have been preceded by no other vertebrated animal, he must have been the first; and yet he had a great many vertebræ all at once! In other words, he was so created, for Natural Selection could not produce such a phenomenon, and there is no other alternative possible for his first appearance, excepting spontaneous generation, which Mr Darwin rejects as inadmissible in science. So then, after all, the first vertebrated was really created! Here, then, we have the happiness to agree with Mr Darwin; and the only difference between us is that we beg leave to extend the rule to a vast many other cases. We have no doubt that the progenitor of a bird had many feathers, of a fish many scales, of an insect many facets in its compound eye, and so on throughout the animated world.

We need not tarry to inquire more particularly about this alleged progenitor of the vertebrata, but by this imperfect allusion to his form, it is most probable that he was a serpent, and a very long one too; for as he must have

deen parent of a serpents, we cannot doubt that he had more vertore than his descendants, in this case of descent, as well as in all the others.

The general plan of structure that seems to have been determined in the organization of animals, admits both of additions and emissions when the case requires; and by this diet teaches us that there must have been something more than leheritance at work, for inheritance can neither add nor leave out a part of the body.

Let us take a true insect, a bee for instance. The therax is interposed between the head and the abdomen, and so far is analogous to that part in human anatomy, though it is but an analogy. To the thorax are attached the three pairs of legs; the first pair may be compared with the pectoral extremities of the vertebrate animals, and the list to the pelvie reibers er hind legs, but to the middle pair y de insect`s kgs there is no anal que in the vertebrate These therefore are cut of the rule and type of

other animals

So when we speak of the insect's eye, we say it is formed on the general principle, or rather, scientific theory of all other eves, the optie nerve, the vitreous humour, the lens, and the retina, but the plan on which the principle is applied is greatly altered, and that which in the vertebrated animals is a single instrument is in insects a compound ene, so as to contain seme thousand facets, or corneæ, each a distinct instrument of vision in that compound hemispherical organ, which is popularly called the eye; each of these facets is of hexagonal form, and each has its peculiar

Mr Darwin has observed that the anterior and posterior ribs in each member of the vertebrate and articulate classes are plainly homelugous 468, but he has made no remark on the mid lie ligs of the artico late class.

double convex lens, iris and pupil, so as to be fully entitled to be considered a distinct instrument of vision, to be, in fact, an eye. Of these we are told the common house-fly has 4000; some dragon-flies upwards of 12,000; and butterflies 17,855; whilst one of the Coleoptera, Mordella, possesses the astonishing number of 25,088.

This apparatus of vision in the insect race is not then on the general plan of the eye of other animals; there has been a free choice and exercise of judgment in its arrangement, and the result is manifest, a separation in this respect, as in many others, from any imaginary line of descent.

Then if we look at the whale, we find indeed the anterior extremities converted into broad fins or paddles, and representing a large hand, whilst the pelvic extremities, the analogues of the hinder limbs of other vertebrata, are absolutely wanting. Now the whale is a placental mammifer, and suckles its young. Hence there is in it a community of organization and character with the higher animals, but it has no hinder limbs. They are omitted.

How is this by the Theory of inheritance? and more particularly may we be inquisitive on this subject, when the Theory furnishes us with the genealogy of the whale, and gives us the bear as its immediate ancestor. The bear has a well-formed proper foot, of which the heel, carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges rest flat on the ground. It was intended that he should walk, and make great use of his pelvic extremities; all is well and largely developed in his body for that purpose--it is scarcely possible to have selected an ancestor more unlike his descendant, in this respect.

* Jones, Animal Kingdom, 277.

If, then, omissions can take place in an alleged descent and additions to any amount be admitted, who can believe in such a law of heritage? Of what use is it to prove anything? and who can listen to its evidence, when it shows a rudimental transitory resemblance to a fish, or other lower animal, in the embryo of a vertebrate animal?

The serpent form, devoid both of the anterior and posterior limbs, may be taken as another instance. It is an animal apparently without the organs of locomotion, and if seen for the first time would be pronounced to be an immovable machine; but by other contrivances, which we certainly never should have imagined, with what rapidity can it move, and execute all its terrible designs! The artist of the animal form has not been circumscribed within the limits of our ideas, but has in thousands of instances proved to us that there may be something far beyond transmutation and the law of descent, in the mystery of organic structure.

But now we come to the bat, and its finger-stretched wing. It was not created a bat, we are told, but was worked out of some other form by Natural Selection, in the usual protracted operation carried on through multiplied ages. It had, however, some other wingless body before the operation began: it was some animal of some sort before the process of transformation commenced; and as there are several sorts of bats, and several sizes of them, some of them must have been as small as mice, and some as large as rabbits. If we were to concede that they used to live on insects before they acquired their wings-and there seems to be no other alternative-they must have been pinched with scanty fare in their first state, as they do not procure more than sufficient now with their very