Page:The Harveian oration - delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, London, on October 18, 1884 (IA b21778929).pdf/21

 thing or primordium which contains within itself both the 'matter' and the efficient cause;' and so is, in fact, the matter out of which, and that by which, whatsoever is produced is made.' Again, "It appears advisable to me to look back from the perfect animal, and to inquire by what process it has arisen, and grown to maturity, to retrace our steps from the goal to the starting-place; . . . . so that we shall perceive from what primary matter and from what efficient principles, and in what way from these this plastic form proceeds. Further on, in the same paper, we find him saying, "Man comes into the world naked and unarmed as if Nature had desired that he should be guided by reason rather than be driven by force; therefore did she endow him with understanding, and furnish him with hands that he might himself construct what was necessary to his clothing and protection. To those animals to which Nature has given vast strength, she has also presented weapons in har- mony with their powers; to those that are not thus vigorous she has given ingenuity, cunning, and singular dexterity in avoiding injury." In connection with this, he proceeds to mention the ornaments . . . . offensive weapons, teeth, horns, spurs, and other implements employed in combat the subject of dispute being, no empty or vainglorious matter, but the perpetuation of the stock in this line or in that; as if Nature intended that he who could best defend himself and his, should be preferred to others for the con- tinuance of the kind,"

In the passages just read, we have, as it appears to me, very much the same ideas as are now conveyed by the terms "protoplasm; " " the relation of man and animals to their environments;" and the doctrine of "the survival of the fittest,"

a Thesis on the Uterine Membranes and Humours, p. 554. 4 Introduction to Excreises on the Generation of Animals, p. 163. 5 Ibid. p. 425. Ibid. p. 426.