man find to his Maker, than in decyphering those repeated epochs and acts of creative power, and those successive modifications of animal life, which, while still including its simpler forms, gradually acquire higher types of organization, and express a scheme of fixed and constant progress, however imperfect our view of the steps by which this is attained? Dividing these periods by the geological characters which clearly denote their relative age and succession, and the altered conditions of the earth in each, we may affirm that each period, amidst a general change of species, contains some element of higher life and more consummate organization. We have not room to dwell on this topic, or to detail the different expressions which naturalists have given to the general fact; but its bearing upon our subject-the natural history of man-will be obvious at first sight, and rises in importance as we pursue and enlarge the inquiry. For what is the position of man in the scheme and series thus described? The answer is written in clear characters in the same great volume of nature-the evidence negative indeed in part, but not on that account less certain. While all anterior conditions of animal life, as they have successively occurred, are represented to us by innumerable vestiges and fossil remains, no trace whatsoever is found of the human being until the epoch in which we have our present existence. Bones, shells, impressions of the most delicate structure, even the passing footsteps of animals over a moist surface, all these things have been wonderfully preserved to the inspection of this later age. The most minute as well as the most gigantic forms of the ancient animal world, in its several periods, are familiar to our present knowledge. If in one spot the remains have been too imperfect to allow the naturalist to complete his delineation, such is the rich exuberance of this fossil world that he rarely fails to obtain what is wanting from some contemporaneous strata elsewhere on the globe. Even the lacunæ which still exist in the series of zoological types are in progress of being filled up from the same fertile source-yet of man, we repeat, no one vestige is to be found; certain though it is that this must have happened, had his existence been laid among any of these first creations on the earth. A single bone, distinctly discovered in a certain geological site, and attested as human by Cuvier or Owen, would have decided the question. But none such have been found a few alleged instances have been subsequently disproved-and the creation of man, as well as of the various species of animal life by which he is now surrounded, may distinctly be referred to the actual surface of the globe, as the latest of those acts of creation of which geology furnishes the record and the proof. Though Though less certain in evidence, it is reasonable to add, in confirmation of this view, what we have just stated as to the introduction of certain higher organizations at each of the periods in question. The step from the most advanced genera of the mammalia to man may be much greater than any antecedent one; but still we are not entitled to disregard this relation as possibly forming part of the great scheme which we humbly contemplate with the faculties permitted us to use. The simple fact that human reason is rendered capable of contemplating such objects, attests more strongly than any other the actual pre-eminence of man over all besides of the existing creation. This point then settled, we come to the particular questions regarding the first condition of man on the earth, which we formerly indicated as lying at the root of the whole inquiry. Is the human being a single species of what naturalists call the genus Homo? or do the diversities of physical character which we see in different races compel the admission that there were more species than one in the original act of creation? Again, if the unity of the species be proved, are we to look for the origin of this species in a single pair placed in some one locality of the globe, and thence diffusing the human race over its surface? or do the facts observed make it probable that there were more than one-possibly several distinct pairs-representing the more prominent diversities of the species, and located in different points, so as to become so many centres of diffusion and admixture of these varieties? * The questions thus generally stated may be said to include all others appertaining to the subject; save one perhaps, already adverted to slightly, but which we must here notice further, inasmuch as it involves the very definition of a species, and suggests contingencies which, if admitted, change the whole aspect of the inquiry. We allude to the opinion of certain naturalists, avowed or anonymous, who, holding that there is no sufficient reason to suppose the immutability of species, believe it possible or probable-that what have hitherto been considered such, may, by the operation of various causes, acting through long periods of time, be gradually transmuted into other and very different forms, or species as we now regard them. The most eminent advocate of this doctrine, Lamarck, hardly cares to shelter himself under those *We use the term anonymous here in reference to the volume entitled 'Vestiges of Creation,' well known to many of our readers, in which all that can be alleged on behalf of this doctrine, and more than can reasonably be alleged, is stated by the unknown writer with skilful plausibility, in language of great vigour and clearness. Those who first encounter the subject under his guidance ought to read also some of the able replies the work has provoked, and which have led the author in his later editions to adopt various modifications, not so explicitly acknowledged, we think, as they might have been. vague generalities by which others have sought to temper their conclusions and reconcile them to the common belief. He lets it be understood that he imposes no limit on this principle of progressive transmutation. From the simplest primitive germs or rudiments may be evolved, by what has been termed spontaneous generation, all the various forms of vegetable and animal organic life; the particular forms being determined by the conditions to which the germs are incidentally subjected; and the development, multiplication, and variation of species depending on the same contingencies, acting through unbounded time, and aided by certain principles of action and change within the beings thus developed. These principles, which have been variously termed appetencies, plastic powers, efforts of internal sentiment, subtle fluids, &c., betray in the outset the weakness of the system. They are phrases unmeaning in themselves-ruinous to all true philosophy. Yet Lamarck, boldly appropriating them, pushes his conclusions into numerous particular instances of this presumed transmutation of species. That which most concerns our present subject is the view he hazards of the transformation of the orang-outang into man; and the sketch he gives, with a rare intrepidity, of the means by which this wonderful change has been worked out. He has not been careful to take the best instance for his case-the Chimpanzee, or Simia troglodytes of Angola, being a closer approach to the human form than the Orang-outang of Borneo, and fully justifying the old line of Ennius Simia, quam similis, turpissima bestia, nobis! But whichsoever be taken as the point of departure in this change from the monkey to the man, the deficiency in argument and fact is the same. Difficult or impossible though it is for human reason to comprehend successive or innumerable specific acts of creation, it is in nowise more difficult than to conceive creation at all:-easier indeed than to conceive laws primitively impressed upon matter, rendering it capable, by any feeling, appetence, or necessity of its own temporary organization, of evolving new organs and instruments of action. For it must be kept in mind, though Lamarck himself leaves it out of sight, that this theory implies not merely variations of form and power in organs previously existing, but the progressive creation or substitution of organs and powers entirely new. Such changes as these we nowhere see in progress. The exact knowledge obtained of certain animal and vegetable species during a period of 3000 years tells us of no such mutations. To avoid difficulties which belong to the limited comprehension of man, and which meet us equally on the confines of all human science, we are called upon to adopt a system system which doubles these difficulties, and gives us only vague words with which to solve them. We are much inclined here to adopt the language of Cicero- Utinam tam facile vera invenire possim quam falsa convincere! One familiar instance will often illustrate better than a thousand arguments. From the window at which we are sitting we see at this moment a large spider weaving its subtle web for the entanglement of its prey. The system before us supposes that some inferior organization feeling the appetency for this particular food, and the need of means for obtaining it, there thence resulted the growth of that beautiful mechanism of structure belonging to the spider, and that wonderful instinct by which the web is woven with such exquisite exactness and adaptation to its use. But this is not all-our speculator cannot rest here. The material of the web is a chemical compound of the most definite kind and definite purpose, and requires especial organs for its elaboration. This material must be alike provided for by the theory in question, and no subterfuge of phrases can save it from the demand. Thus taxed-and we might endlessly multiply such instances-the doctrine becomes a nullity to our comprehension or use; and we may wisely acquiesce in that simpler and more intelligible view, which refers all these wonders of subordinate intelligence to the will and ever present and active power of the great Author of nature. 6 The relation of this particular question to the subject before us will now be obvious. Those of our readers who wish to pursue it further may refer to all that Cuvier has so admirably written on the permanence of species; to the works of Dr. Prichard; and to the excellent chapters in Lyell's Principles of Geology,' which we have placed at the head of this article. While we concur, however, with Sir C. Lyell in rejecting this theory as inadmissible in reason, we freely acknowledge that its discussion among men of science has done much to enlarge our views as to all that concerns the definition of species in nature, the conditions establishing their identity, and the changes more or less permanent of which they are susceptible, either from natural causes, from education, or from forced union with each other in the production of hybrids. The topic is one of deep interest, carrying us by divers paths into the midst of the most profound questions which can legitimately exercise our reason. It is associated closely with many of the natural sciences, as especially with all that relates to the physical history of man. No one of common reflection can enter the walls of a great zoological museum without some sentiment of awe in looking on the innumerable forms of life around-cette richesse effrayante, as Cuvier well calls it, when speaking of insects alone as one class in the vast series. The wonder is augmented when considering that this is only the visible world of life. The microscope has now disclosed to us the waters of the earth tenanted by hosts of living beings before unseen; and the most recent researches of Ehrenberg show the atmosphere around us peopled with genera and species not recognised by the most delicate human sense, yet probably affecting in various ways the physical condition of man.* If there be any real transmutation of species, or spontaneous generation and present creation of new species, we might expect to find it among these minute and simple organisms, or germs, which seem to have some common relation to vegetable and animal life; and may be presumed more liable to change in evolution from the influences surrounding them. Yet we have no certain evidence of this having ever occurred, and many facts adverse to it. The sudden appearance of known species in new situations, accepted by some as a proof, shows only the exquisite minuteness of the primitive germs of life, and their tenacity of existence until the conditions occur necessary to evolve them. Of this tenacity we have proof in many remarkable cases, and it is probably in some inverse ratio to the elevation of the species.† * These researches, which are recorded in two or three memoirs presented to the Berlin Academy of Sciences during the past year, appear to have been suggested to Ehrenberg by the prevalence of the Cholera in Berlin towards the end of 1848. They offer the extraordinary result of nearly 400 species of organic life existing in different strata of the atmosphere as examined on this spot. Another memoir about the same time relates the singular phenomenon of a vivid vermilion matter, which, on the 26th of October, 1848, suddenly showed itself on the bread and other farinaceous substances in different parts of Berlin; and which was found, on examination, both there and in England, to consist of two fungi and one animal organism-the latter called by Ehrenberg the Menas prodigiosa. It is a curious, though presumably casual coincidence, that precisely the same phenomenon occurred in Philadelphia when the Cholera was raging there in 1832. We have it in the relation of Quintus Curtius that during the siege of Tyre by Alexander the bread in the city was found suddenly stained with blood; a miracle then-now explained (as may be many similar phenomena of former times) in a manner scarcely less miraculous, but in accordance with the natural laws that pervade and govern the world. It is impossible not to suppose that these living organisms, tenanting the atmosphere in which we ourselves live, may have, in their existence and changes, many important effects on the human economy. Though not yet explicitly placed among the causes of disease, it is likely that future research will show them to be so. The same general reasoning will apply to the seeming identity of the curious cellular structure which appears, from recent research, to form the nucleus of all the textures of organic life. That species so numerous and distinct are actually evolved from that structure, proves that there is an agent of life, independent of the cell, though working through it as an instrument or medium. It is conceivable that different combinations of cells may modify the result in the simpler forms of life. Such would seem to be the case in the recent observations of Professors Forbes and Steenstrup, commented upon by Professor Owen in his recent volume entitled 'Parthenogenesis.' But the cases of this kind hitherto made known are few in number-the effects, as far as we can see, are only temporary-and the type of the species appears to be maintained amidst the variations impressed on them. The |