own
conclusion is, that in face of the testimony adduced against it, the
author's hypothesis is not yet established.

For proof that species do change, and that even new species have been
actually and recently produced, the author has adduced statements
certainly as questionable and little satisfactory as his representation
of foetal phenomena. We can only briefly enumerate them. First we are
told that oats sown at midsummer, if kept cropped down, so as to be
prevented shooting into ear, and then allowed to remain in the ground
over winter, will spring up next year in the form of rye (p. 226). This
need not be disputed about; the experiment can be easily tried; but if
rye were the result, it would be no conclusive proof of a translation of
species. Perhaps the oat-plants perished under the operation of repeated
cuttings, and the rye seed was dormant in the earth and sprung up in its
place; or, if not so, oats and rye may not be different species, only
varieties of the same species. They are scarcely more dissimilar than
the primrose, the cowslip, and the oxlip, which have all been raised
from the seed of the same plant, and are now regarded by botanists as
varieties instead of species.

When lime is laid on waste ground we are told that white clover will
spring up spontaneously, and in situations where no clover-seed could
have been left dormant in the soil (p. 182). But how is this to be
proved? It is certain that seeds will remain dormant in the soil for
centuries, and then spring up the first year the soil is turned up by
the plough. Some seeds have retained their vitality for thousands of
years in the old tombs of Egypt; they have been repeatedly brought to
England, sown, and produced good wheat.

We are next told that wild pigs never have the measles, they are
produced by a _hyatid_ and the result of domestication; that a _tinea_
is found in dressed wool that does not exist in its unwashed state; that
a certain insect disdains all food but chocolate, and that the larva of
_oinopota cellaris_ only lives in wine and beer. All these are articles
manufactured by man, and are adduced as proofs of animal life,
independent of any primordial egg. The entoza are dwelt upon; they are
creatures living in the interior of other animals, of which the
tape-worm that infests the human body is a melancholy instance. In
these illustrations we think the author has some show of reason, for we
feel convinced that there is such a th