Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1872

advanced or retrograded in organisation. To attempt to compare members of distinct types in the scale of highness seems hopeless; who will decide whether a cuttlefish be higher than a bee— that insect which the great Von Baer believed to be "in fact more highly organised than a fish, although upon another type"? In the complex struggle for life it is quite credible that crustaceans, for instance, not very high in their own class, might beat the cephalopods or highest molluscs; and such crustaceans, though not highly developed, would stand very high in the scale of invertebrate animals, if judged by the most decisive of all trials— the law of battle. Besides these inherent difficulties in deciding which forms are the most advanced in organisation, we ought not solely to compare the highest members of a class at any two .. periods— though undoubtedly this is one and perhaps the most important element in striking a balance— but we ought to compare all the members, high and low, at the two periods. At an ancient epoch the highest and lowest molluscoidal animals, namely, cephalopods and brachiopods, swarmed in numbers; at the present time both groups are greatly reduced, whilst others, .. intermediate in .. organisation, have largely increased; consequently some naturalists .. maintain that molluscs were formerly more highly developed than at present; but a stronger case can be made out on the opposite side, by considering the vast reduction of brachiopods, and the fact that our existing cephalopods, though .. few in number, are more highly organised than their ancient representatives. We ought also to compare the relative proportional numbers at any two periods of the high and low classes throughout the world: if, for instance, at the ... present day .. fifty thousand kinds of vertebrate animals exist, and if

advanced or retrograded in organisation. To attempt to compare in the scale of highness members of distinct types seems hopeless: who will decide whether a cuttle-fish be higher than a bee— that insect which the great Von Baer believed to be "in fact more highly organised than a fish, although upon another type"? In the complex struggle for life it is quite credible that crustaceans, .. not very high in their own class, might beat .. cephalopods, the highest molluses; and such crustaceans, though not highly developed, would stand very high in the scale of invertebrate animals if judged by the most decisive of all trials— the law of battle. Besides these inherent difficulties in deciding which forms are the most advanced in organisation, we ought not solely to compare the highest members of a class at any two distant periods— though undoubtedly this is one and perhaps the most important element in striking a balance— but we ought to compare all the members, high and low, at the two periods. At an ancient epoch the highest and lowest molluses, namely, cephalopods and brachiopods, swarmed in numbers: at the present time both these orders have been greatly reduced, whereas other orders, intermediate in grade of organisation, have been largely increased; consequently some naturalists have maintained that molluses were formerly more highly developed than at present; but a stronger case can be made out on the other side, by considering the vast reduction at the present day of the lowest molluses, more especially as the existing cephalopods, though so few in number, are more highly organised than their ancient representatives. We ought also to consider the relative proportional numbers of the high and low classes in the population of the world at any two periods: if, for instance, at the present day there be fifty thousand kinds of vertebrate animals, and if