Page:The advancement of science by experimental research - the Harveian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 27th, 1883 (IA b24869958).pdf/38

34 the animal kingdom. To what but direct design could we trace the electric organs of the torpedo and clectric eel; or the re- markable arrangement for the fertilisation of orchids. The manifold peculiarities of animals and their adaptations, require, we think, more than mere natural selection and the forces of the living structures of the animals themselves to produce structural changes; the exquisite beauty of the cye in the different classes of animals according to their conditions of life is, we consider, due to the direct power of a beneficent Creator, and so with every other sense, and the instincts of every species; the tribes of insect-life and their wonderful habits, the adaptations of birds and animals to their food requirements and mode of life, the carnivorous to its need and the herbivorous to its wants, the migratory birds and the aquatic diver, each indicate more than mere progressive development by insensible steps.

According to some theories, the swallow would at first, we presume, be satisfied with short journeys, but the next and succeeding