as possible, would grow into such an entirely new phenomenon as a
new, even closely related, species would be. But if we adopt the theory of
a heterogenetic generation, we explain by it the variety but not the
similarity of species; {58} for a heterogenetic generation would in the new
species make everything different from the old one--a conclusion, the
necessity of which it would be difficult to show. For these reasons, he
refers the descent of the organic beings, not to the series of the species,
with their individuals already specified and defined, but to the series of
_primordial cells_ living free in the water. The earliest primordial cells
represented only the common character of the _whole organic world_, and out
of them the primordial cells of the _animal_ and those of the _vegetable
kingdom_ were produced by dividing the cells; so that the first ones
embraced only the general and primitive characteristics of the whole
animal, the last ones those of the whole vegetable kingdom. Out of these
primordial cells of the two kingdoms, those of the _main types_
proceeded--(for instance, the primordial cells of the radiated animals, the
vertebrates, etc., the gymnosperms, the angiosperms, etc.); out of them
those of the _classes_--(for instance, the mammalia, the dicotyledons); out
of them those of the _orders_--(for instance, the beasts of prey,
rosiflorae); out of them those of the _families_ (canina, rosaceae); out of
them those of the _genus_ (canis, rosa); and out of them those of the
_species_ (canis lupus, rosa canina). Only when the primordial cells of the
species had been produced, were they developed into finished
representatives of the species; and when once these primordial cells of the
species had been developed into finished and full-grown individuals of the
species, their transmission took place in the manner well known to us.
Wigand published his criticism of the Darwinian Theories in his larger
work, "Der Darwinismus und die Naturforschung Newtons und Cuviers,"
("Darwinism {59} and the Natural Science of Newton and Cuvier"),
Braunschweig, Vieweg, Vol. I, 1874, Vol. II, 1876, and his own attempt at
explanation in a smaller book, published at the same place in 1872: "Die
Genealogie der Urzellen als Loesung des Descendenzproblems oder die
Entstehung der Arten ohne natuerliche Zuchtwahl" ("Genealogy of the
Primordial Cells as a Solution of the Problem of Descent; or the Origin of
Species without Natural Select