Picture - Cosmic Polymath

380 DESIGN IN NATURE
That typical plants and animals should remain unchanged for thousands of years simply surpasses belief.
There has always been a necessity for types or independent hfe centres. In geologic times the flora and fauna
difiered materially from those of the present day, and it is next to impossible for the geologist and biologist to dis-
tinguish between them. The differences cannot be bridged over by any form of modification, however long con-
tinued, or by any kind of evolution. The various extinct and hving plants and animals do not merge or run into
each other. They maintain, and have always done so, a separate existence. The belief in the separate creation
of plants and animals in time and space is rapidly gaining ground. It is, however, admitted that modifications more
or less extensive are required to meet the exigencies of chmate, atmospheric conditions, environment, &c.
Type and the persistence of type go together.
Mr. Wilham Carruthers has shown that the earUest vegetable specimens described by Dr. Schweinfurth from
the Egyptian tombs reveal no trace of change. This is also seen in the unchanged leaves and other organs found
in the Pleistocene clays of Ottawa, on the Continent, and in Britain. Mr. Carruthers shows that the ancient willow
{Salix polaris), which now hves in the Arctic region, is found in the fossil form in the Pleistocene beds at Cromer and
Bovey Tracy.
Still more remarkable examples of the persistency of types are witnessed in animals. Here we are on comparatively
safe ground, as plants and animals are figured side by side on the ancient Chaldean and Egyptian monu-
ments. Civihsed man, the head of the great vertebrate type, is now known to have occupied Egypt and the
neighbouring countries for at least 8000 years ; but as there was a civilisation long anterior to this, when flint was
the only substance employed in the arts, that is, in the formation of arrow-heads, javelins, spears, knives, scrapers,
hatchets, hammers, &c., the period of semi-civilisation must be very greatly extended. Indeed the antiquity of man
may be transferred backwards to a practically indefinite period.
Professor Huxley has furnished proofs at once of the fabulous antiquity of animals and of the marvellous
stability and persistency of type. He points out that, " The progress of research has suppUed far more striking
examples of the long duration of specific forms of life than those which are furnished by the mummified ibises and
crocodiles of Egypt. A remarkable case is to be found in the neighbourhood of the Falls of Magara. In the imme-
diate vicinity of the whirlpool, and again upon Goat Island, in the superficial deposits which cover the surface of
the rocky subsoil in those regions, there are found remains of animals in perfect preservation, and among them
shells belonging to exactly the same species as those which at present inhabit the still waters of Lake Erie. .
We are fairly justified in concluding that no less a period than 30,000 years have passed since the shell-fish, whose
remains are left in the beds to which I have referred, were hving creatures.
" But there is still stronger evidence of the long duration of certain types. I have already stated that, as we
work our way through the great series of the Tertiary formations, we find many species of animals identical with
those which live at the present day, diminishing in numbers, it is true, but still existing, in a certain proportion, in
the oldest of the Tertiary rocks. Furthermore, when we examine the rocks of the Cretaceous epoch, we find the
remains of some animals which the closest scrutiny cannot show to be, in any important respect, difierent from those
which five at the present time. That is the case with one of the cretaceous lamp-shells {Terebratula), which has
continued to exist unchanged, or with insignificant variations, down to the present day. . . . Hence it must be
admitted that certain existing species of animals show no distinct sign of modification, or transformation, in the
course of a lapse of time as great as that which carries us back to the Cretaceous period ;
absolute measure, is certainly vastly greater than 30,000 years."
and which, whatever its
^
The marvel of the permanency of plants and animals on the earth is only surpassed by the marvel of their
creation. It is difficult to reahse that from tiny specks of living matter the interminable races of plants and animals
proceed, and that from one speck comes a highly complex form hke the bee, and from another a simple animal
Uke the amoeba. The hving microscopic particles produce with equal facihty the smallest and largest plants and
animals, as represented by the snow plant and Wellingtonia on the one hand, and by the zooid and leviathan, ancient
and modern, on the other. The permanency of tiny hving specks, their refusal to coalesce and lose their identity,
and their capacity to produce plants and animals " after their kind," argue the possession of wholly exceptional
powers. These powers are inherent, and are in no way connected with irritability, extraneous stimulation, environ-
ment, or chance. They afford examples of " means to ends," design, spontaneity, and vitality, and become wonderful
in proportion to the care bestowed on their examination.
The points of interest in the present connection are briefly these :
(a) Plants and animals are arranged according to types.
(b) The types are permanent and independent, and do not change into anything different from themselves.
(c) Types are known to persist for very many thousand years.
' " Lectures and Essays," by Thomas Henry Huxley (Macmillan's series). London, 1904, pages 22 and 23.
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