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    rigidly regular : let us , I say , only insider these things , and we shall see that the decreeing of laws to bring the whole about was an act involving such a degree of wisdom and device as we only can attribute , adoringly , to the one Eternal and Unchangeable / ' f _ . ... . In the sixth edition the author says , " Kence comes my suggestion of a process analogous to ordinary gestation ; " the alteration of " my" into " the , " given above , seems a disclaimer of . originality . Taking the passages ' they stand , however , is it not remarkable , first , that opponents should have accused the Vestiges of holding an hypothesis so distinctly repudiated ; and , second , that they should have ignored the theologicometaphysical conception of a " pre-ordained plan , " and persisted in accusing the author of being a materialist , and every other "ist" which could be supposed to damage his repute P But to continue our examination of the Lamarck question . "We find , in the preface to this edition , that , at the time the first was produced , the author had only heard of Lamarck , which will account for that levity of tone just noted ; since then he seems to have learned something more of him , though we question whether he has read the JPMlosophie Zoqlogiqye very carefully . He admits that the germ of the natural view is in Lamarck . Lamarck ' s error , as it appears to us , arose from his not having the true fundamental biological conception , since elaborated by De Blainville and I

    Cointe , viz .,- —the indispensable co-relation of an Organism and a Medium From the want of this guiding conception he kept the influence of circumstance m modifying and developing the Organism , constantly before his eyes , as the one determining cause ; but , if this were so , every change in the Medium would change the organism , and , in process of time , the result of a sufficiently constant set of conditions would produce absolute uniformity in the organism , so that all birds would be alike , all fishes alike , &c . ' . ¦ . , 1 1 '<

    Historically , one can but applaud Lamarck ' s efforts in ascertaining the influence of external circumstances , for it was to them , mainly , that the modern theory of the Medium owes its existence . It has led to extravagances beyond the Lamarckian Hypothesis ; for example , that profoundly unbiological attempt of Cuvier to determine all modifications by mere alimentation . But , while doing Lamarck justice , one must see that the onesidedness of the view necessarily lande _ d him in , error . He gave too much and too exclusive an importance to external conditions ; yet , even in doing 80 , he did not entirely set aside the other factor , which has been brought into such metaphysical prominence by the Vestiges . In the Introduction to his Philosophic Zoologique , \ Q says : —

    " The conditions necessary to life being found complete in the least complex organizations , but also reduced to their most simple forrh , the question arises how this organization , by any process of change , should develope into a less simple one , and finally result in the more complicated organizations , traceable in the extent of the animal scale . Here , by the aid of the two following considerations , to which I had been led by observation , I imagined I had discovered the solution , of this problem . " In the first place , numerous established facts prove that the continual exercise

    of an organ contributes to its development , strengthens , and even increases it in size , while on the other hand , habitual inactivity retards the development , deteriorates , and even entirely effaces the organ , should this inactivity continue for a long period , with individuals of successive generations . From hence wo conclude that , should a change of circumstances compel the individuals of a race to a complete change of habits , the organs least in use will disappear by degrees , while those more actively employed will gradually develope , and acquire vigour and size , in proportion to their habitual exercise .

    " Secondly , by reflection on the powers of motion exercised by fluids m the extremely yielding substances in which they are contained , I became convinced , that , in proportion as their motion is accelerated , the fluids of an organized body have power to modify the tissues containing them , to open for themselves a passage , to form various canals , in fact , to creato different organs , according to the stnto of organization at which they have arrived . "From these two considerations I concluded , with certainty , that the motion of fluids in the interior of animals—a motion accelerated in proportion to the complexit y of the organization , and the injltience of new circumstances , operating , by degrees , ns animals become exposed to it , by being dispersed over inhabited districts , were the two general causes which have affected tho state of animals , as wo « t present nee them . "

    I hero was necessarily an organic vitality—a power of adaptation—imphed in this hypothesis , over and above tho influcnco of tho Medium , and this , although a mero " germ , " determined Lamarck in tho creation of his nrst zoological principle , viz . : J . ha progression in the composition of an organism is affected , here and there , in the animal series , by certain anomalies due to the influence of circumstances , and of contracted habits . " J-ho most decisive passage wo remember , containing tho " gorm" flubseqviontl y developed m tho Vestiges , is the following : — " ^ n ' K a * ^ ho invertebrated animals , wo enter on nn immense sories of difleron t animals , tho most numorous class existing in nature , tho most curious and 'irterosfcing , with reference to tho differences observable in their organization and faculties . ,

    " We' fool convinced on observing- their state , that in dovoloping each flucces « ivo c *> Htonco , Naturu " has proceeded gradually , from tlfo mont tum ' plo towards tho moro con mlox . Now her object bohig- to arrive at n scheme of organization , which ¦ Mould admit of the utmost perfectibility , ( that of tho organization of tho vcrte'ratcd animals , ) u scheme differing greatly from those which sho wiih previously wend to creato , in order to attain this object , —wo fool that there must oxist , '" nougat ; 1 , h Hi organ of primary importance began to exist . in " il ftlOt WlU 3 n ¦ Nllturo lm ( l croated a special organ for tho process of digestion , ( aa th 0 pofyptt , ) » ho gave , for the flrot timo , u peculiar and unvarying form to tho

    animals furnished with such organ ; the infusoria , by which she first commenced her creative scale , possessing neither the faculty proper to this organ , nor the form and organization favourable to the exercise of its functions . " When , subsequently , she established an especial organ for respiration , and in proportion as she varied this organ , to perfect it and to adapt it to , the differing circumstances- of' animal life " , she diversified the organization , according to- the requirements of the existence and development of other special organs . " When , later , she succeeded in producing the nervous system , it then became possible to create the muscular system , and thenceforward she needed parts possessing solidity , for the attachment of the muscles , double parts , to constitute symmetry of form , and from hence resulted various modes of organization , differing on account of external circumstances , and additional developments , which could not have come into being previously . " Finally , when she had obtained sufficient motion among the fluids contained in the animal tissues , to organize the circulation , very important peculiarities developed themselves , distinguishing this organic system from those in which circulation did not exist . " The conception is vague and confused . In the Vestiges it is clear , emphatic , and has become more and more so in succeeding editions . The author is as open to the charge of disregarding the influence of external conditions as Lamarck is of exaggerating it . There is some interest in comparing the original statement with its latest modification : —

    . FIEST EDITION " . TENTH EDITION . " The tendency of all these illustra- " The proposition determined on after tions is to make us look to development much consideration is , that the several as the principle which has been imme- series of animated beings , from the diately concerned in the peopling of this simplest and oldest up to the highest globe , a process extending over a vast and most recent , are , under the provispace of time , but which is nevertheless dence of God , the results first , of an connected in character with the briefer impulse which has been imparted to the process by which an individual being is forms of life , advancing them , in definite evoked from a simple germ . What times , by generation , through grades of mystery is there here ^—and how shall I organization terminating in the highest 1 proceed to enunciate the conception dycotyledonsandvertebrata , these grades which I have ventured to form of what being few in number , and generally may prove to be its proper solution ! It marked by intervals of organic ehais an idea by no means calculated to racter which we find to be a practical impress by its greatness , or to puzzle by difficulty in ascertaining affinities ; its profoundness . It is an idea more second , of another impulse connected marked by simplicity than perhaps any with the vital forces , tending in the other of those which have explained the course'of . generations to modify organic great secrets of nature . But in this structures in accordance with ^ external lies , perhaps , one of its strongest claims circumstances , as food , the nature of tho to the faith of mankind . habitat , and the meteoric agencies , " The whole train of animated beings , these being the < adaptations' of the from the simplest and oldest up to the natural theologian . We may contemhighest and most recent , are , then , to plate these p henomena as ordained to be regarded as a series of advances of take place in every situation , and at the principle of development , which every time , where and when the rehave depended upon external physical quisite materials and conditions are precircumstances , to which tho resulting sented—in other orbs as well as in thisanimals are appropriate . I contemplate in any geographical area of this globo the whole phenomena as having been in which may at anytime arise- —observing the first place arranged in the counsels only the variations due to difference of of Divine Wisdom , to take place , not materials and of conditions . The nuonly upon this sphere , but upon all tho eleateel vesicle is contemplated as tho others in space , under necessary modifi- fundamental form of all organization , cations , and as being carried on , from tho meeting-point between tho inorganic first to last , here and elsewhere , under and the organic — the end of the immediate favour of the creative will or mineral and beginning of the vegetablo energy . Tho nucleated vesicle , tho and animal kingdoms , which thence fundamental form of all organization , we start in different directions , but in a must regard as the meeting-point bo- general parallelism and analogy . This twecn tho inorganic and the organic— nucleated vesicle is itself a typo of tho end of tho mineral and the beginning mature and independent being , an well of tho vegetable and animal kingdoms , an the starting-point of the fletal prowhich thence start in different directions , gross of every higher individual in but in perfect parallelism and analogy , creation , both animal and vegetable . Wo have already seen that this nucleated We have seen that , tho proximate vesicle is itnelf a typo of mature and in- principles or first organic combinations depondent being in tho infusory animal- being held , and in some instances cules , as well as tho starting point of proved , as producible by tho chemist , an tho foetal progress of every higher nidi- operation which would produce in theso vidual in creation , both animal and the nucleated vesielo is all that is vegetable . Wo have seen that it in a wanting effectually to bridge over the form of being which electric agency will spaco between tho inorganic and tho produce—though not perhaps usher into organic . Jtemembering theso thing' ' , fnll life—in albumen , ono of those com- it does not seem , after all , a very impound elements of animal bodies , of moderate hypothesis , that a chemicowhieh another ( urea ) has been mado by electric operation , by winch germinal artificial moans . Remembering- these vesicles wore produced , was tho first things , wo are drawn on to the nupposi- phenomenon in organic creation , and tion , that , tho first step in tho creation that tho . second was an advance of these of life upon thin planet was a chnnioo- through a succession of higher grades , electric operation , by iohich simple and a variety ^ of modifications in germical vesicles tocrc produced . Thin in accordance with lawn of the name bo much , but what were tho next absolute nature as those by which tho steps ? Let a common vegotablo infu- Almighty rules the physical departbioii help us to an answer . There , as' niont of naluro . " wo have soon , simple forms are produced at first , but afterwards they become more complicated , until at length tho lifo-jn-oducing powers of tho infusion are exhausted . Aro wo to presume that , in Wiia ease , the simple engender tho complicated ? Undoubtedly , tliiu would not bo moro wonderful as a natural process ,

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    A u ^ pST 3 ? , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 833

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1853, page 833, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2001/page/17/