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because no other has been presented which appears so well to harmonize with the facts.

In the theory now presented I have endeavored to avoid this defect, with what success the read ing public must judge.

CHAPTER II.

THEORIES.

Theories of Lamarck and others. The Darwinian Theory. Views in relation thereto, by Owen, Huxley, Spencer, and others.

In 1809 Lamarck, a celebrated French naturalist, first promulgated the theory that one species was developed from another by certain physiological changes, made necessary by surrounding circumstances, and producing new organs by sheer force of will. Thus the snail as it draws itself along, is supposed to feel the want of organs to examine the bodies it comes in contact with; and in making the effort to touch them, forces the fluids towards the head, causing two or more tentacula; and this is claimed to have happened to the whole gasteropod race.

So an herbivorous animal, pressed for forage, stretches its neck to reach the lower branches of trees, and becomes a giraffe. A shore bird desiring to swim in search of food spreads out its toes; and in time its feet become webbed. So too, in the language of Von Baer; "a fish swimming towards the shore desires to take a walk, but finds its fins useless. They diminish in breadth for

because no other has been presented which so well to harmonize with the facts.

appears

In the theory now presented I have endeavored to avoid this defect, with what success the read ing public must judge.

CHAPTER II.

THEORIES.

Theories of Lamarck and others.

The Darwinian Theory. Views in relation thereto, by Owen, Huxley, Spencer, and others.

In 1809 Lamarck, a celebrated French naturalist, first promulgated the theory that one species was developed from another by certain physiological changes, made necessary by surrounding circumstances, and producing new organs by sheer force of will. Thus the snail as it draws itself along, is supposed to feel the want of organs to examine the bodies it comes in contact with; and in making the effort to touch them, forces the fluids towards the head, causing two or more tentacula; and this is claimed to have happened to the whole gasteropod race.

So an herbivorous animal, pressed for forage, stretches its neck to reach the lower branches of trees, and becomes a giraffe. A shore bird desiring to swim in search of food spreads out its toes; and in time its feet become webbed. So too, in the language of Von Baer; "a fish swimming towards the shore desires to take a walk, but finds its fins useless. They diminish in breadth for

goes on with children and grand-children for a few millions of years, and at last who can be astonished that the fins become feet."

So the ape, most nearly related to man, made the first step to humanity, by ceasing to climb trees, and assuming an upright gait. This is supposed by him to have changed the spinal column-changed the fore limbs into arms and hands -the hind limbs to true legs-changed the food, and as a sequence, the jaws, teeth and contour of the face and more marvellous still, got rid of the tail. (1-81).

All this is eminently fallacious; and in contra. vention of the fact that there are no materiai changes in the physical system of any given species, except such as result from adaptation to changed conditions; and such changes have never yet been known as effecting an undoubted change of species. So obvious was the inadequacy of this theory to produce such momentous results, that the French philosopher gained few, if any, adherents. It nevertheless contains the germ of the now justly celebrated "Darwinian Theory."

Another French naturalist, Pouchet, starts with a first germ produced by spontaneous generation, and from it supposes the organization of a form like the Protozoa. He says: "Let us return to this primordial anatomical element which we call individual element. It virtually, represents a vertebrate animal, just as the ovum detached from the ovary of the female represents a man, who is

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