But if this be a true statement of the nature of the process of
Agamogenesis, how can it enable us to comprehend the production of
new species from already existing ones? Let us suppose Hyaenas to have
preceded Dogs, and to have produced the latter in this way. Then the
Hyena will represent A, and the Dog, B. The first difficulty that
presents itself is that the Hyena must be asexual, or the process will
be wholly without analogy in the world of Agamogenesis. But passing over
this difficulty, and supposing a male and female Dog to be produced at
the same time from the Hyaena stock, the progeny of the pair, if the
analogy of the simpler kinds of Agamogenesis* is to be followed, should
be a litter, not of puppies, but of young Hyenas. ([Footnote] * If,
on the contrary, we follow the analogy of the more complex forms of
Agamogenesis, such as that exhibited by some 'Trematoda' and by the
'Aphides', the Hyaena must produce, asexually, a brood of asexual Dogs,
from which other sexless Dogs must proceed. At the end of a certain
number of terms of the series, the Dogs would acquire sexes and generate
young; but these young would be, not Dogs, but Hyaenas. In fact, we have
DEMONSTRATED, in Agamogenetic phenomena, that inevitable recurrence
to the original type, which is ASSERTED to be true of variations in
general, by Mr. Darwin's opponents; and which, if the assertion could
be changed into a demonstration would, in fact, be fatal to his
hypothesis.) For the Agamogenetic series is always, as we have seen, A:
B: A: B, etc.; whereas, for the production of a new species, the series
must be A: B: B: B, etc. The production of new species, or genera, is
the extreme permanent divergence from the primitive stock. All known
Agamogenetic processes, on the other hand, end in a complete return to
the primitive stock. How then is the production of new species to be
rendered intelligible by the analogy of Agamogenesis?
The other alternative put by Professor Kolliker--the passage of
fecundated ova in the course of their development into higher
forms--would, if it occurred, be merely an extreme case of variation in
the Darwinian sense, greater in degree than, but perfectly similar in
kind to, that which occurred when the well-known Ancon Ram was developed
from an ordinary Ewe's ovum. Indeed we have always thought that Mr.
Darwin has unnecessarily hampered himself by adhering so strictly to his
favourite "Natura non facit saltum." We greatly suspect that she does
make considerable jumps in the way of variation now and then, and that
these saltations give rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in
the series of known forms.
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