Picture - Cosmic Polymath

DESIGN IN THE REPRODUCTION AND GROWTH OF ANIMALS 371
§ 71. Design as Manifested in the Reproduction and Growth of Animals.
Strong arguments for design are furnished by a consideration of the important subjects of reproduction and
growth in animals. These require separate and detailed treatment. The peculiarity of reproduction consists in
its spontaneous and independent nature ; the changes which occur during the process being self-inaugurated and
resulting in prospective structures and functions necessary to the adult individual. The self-induced changes and
transformations are means to ends, but the causes and the effects are beyond the ken of the parents, and must be
referred to the intelligent action of a First Cause. The most simple and complicated changes are equally under
guidance, and chains of events, sometimes highly intricate and involved, occur in unvarying sequence, and in such a
manner as can only be explained by design. This is very evident in the reproduction of the more highly differentiated
animals. In mammals, for example (and what is true of them is relatively true of other hving things), the heart
which is to propel the blood is formed before blood is admitted into it ; the stomach and aUmentary canal are
formed before food is eaten ; the lungs and chest are formed before air is breathed ; and
are formed before walking is attempted.
the bones and muscles
Structure precedes fimction ; but the structures and functions are not determined by the substances with
which they have to deal, or on which they are to act : the blood is not the prime mover of the heart ; the food does
not set up the vermicular movements of the intestine ;
of the chest ;
the atmosphere does not occasion the rhythmic movements
the ground does not produce the movements of walking, the water of swimming, or the air of flying.
In hving things (plants and animals ahke), the structures and organs, be they simple or complex, are formed
for a purpose, and they are formed independently, and in anticipation, so to speak, of their life work. The roots
and leaves of the plant are pushed out, aggressively as it were, to obtain nutritious saps ;
of animals are advanced voluntarily to seize, incorporate, and assimilate food.
and the feeding apphances
Plants and animals, and everything outside of them, are related as subject and object ; the subject being pro-
duced from, but not by, the object. The subject, as a rule, is superior to and dominates the object. The subject
as here employed is aggressive and active ; the object being quiescent and passive. The subject must have some-
thing outside of itself to work upon ; that something being the object. The subject would have no raison d'etre
as apart from its natural or appropriate object. The subject and object are complemental ; the one being made
for and adapted to the other. The subject consists of living matter, as seen more especially in animals, where there
is usually a shght admixture of sensation, perception, or consciousness. The object, on the other hand, is composed
of dead matter such as we behold in the physical universe, where no traces of sensation, perception, or any attribute
of mind can be detected.
The subject acts, the object is acted upon. There is a tendency in the present day to reverse this natural order
of things, and to refer all the activities of plants and animals to mechanical arrangements as apart from life, and
as apart from a First Cause, and design. The mechanical school regards living things as mere automata, and attributes
all structure and all function to the play of natural forces and blind chance operating on brut matter. They
claim law and order for the universe, while they practically exclude and deny the First Cause ; that is, the directive
agency on which everything depends.
Nothing, perhaps, in the wide range of the organic kingdom can convey a more elevated conception of the powers
and possibihties of life than the several processes concerned in reproduction. Here there can be no question of innate
abihty on the part of every living thing to work out its own destiny as apart from every form of environment,
irritation, and outside stimulation. Reproduction is essentially the act of life. It is not dependent on any form of
external aid or excitation. Given healthy plants and animals and the necessary conditions of normal life, repro-
duction follows in the natural order of things and of necessity. Whatever may be said of other functions, the
function of reproduction is assuredly fundamental and traceable to powers inseparable from the hving organism,
whether that be simple or complex. It could scarcely be otherwise. If reproduction, which is the most important
function of Ufe, were in any way dependent on fortuitous circumstances, there would, in many cases, be a consider-
able danger of the extinction of dominant races.
In certain plants the organs of generation occur in different individuals, and in these instances winds, insects,
&c., take an indirect part in the reproductive process. It must, however, be noted that, even in these cases, the
extraneous aids do not act as stimuU, but only as media of communication. Moreover, the winds, insects, and other
aids to reproduction are all under control, and themselves afford evidences of design. The stimulation in every
instance comes from the union of the male and female elements. The union in the majority of cases is followed by
fertihsation, which is a vital act. It is important to be clear on this fundamental point. Plants and animals have
in themselves the wherewithal to initiate and accompUsh the reproductive process quite apart from all kinds of
outside interference. The reproductive acts begin and terminate in hving organisms, and these acts are spontaneous