Book contents
- Frontmatter
- TO THE READER
- Contents
- LIST OF WOOD-CUTS
- STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS.—THE LAKE OF STENNIS
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS FAMILY
- CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA.—ITS APPARENT PRINCIPLE
- THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT
- FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS, UPPER AND LOWER.—THEIR RECENT HISTORY, ORDER, AND SIZE
- HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
- THE PLACOID BRAIN.—EMBRYOTIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY OF A LOW ORDER
- THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION.—ITS HISTORY
- EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT TREE
- SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION.—THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE
- LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL.—BEARING OF THE EXPERIENCE ARGUMENT
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYOTIC STATE.—OLDER THAN ITS ALLEGED FOUNDATIONS
- FINAL CAUSES.—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY.—CONCLUSION
LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- TO THE READER
- Contents
- LIST OF WOOD-CUTS
- STROMNESS AND ITS ASTEROLEPIS.—THE LAKE OF STENNIS
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS FAMILY
- CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLIER VERTEBRATA.—ITS APPARENT PRINCIPLE
- THE ASTEROLEPIS.—ITS STRUCTURE, BULK, AND ASPECT
- FISHES OF THE SILURIAN ROCKS, UPPER AND LOWER.—THEIR RECENT HISTORY, ORDER, AND SIZE
- HIGH STANDING OF THE PLACOIDS.—OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED
- THE PLACOID BRAIN.—EMBRYOTIC CHARACTERISTICS NOT NECESSARILY OF A LOW ORDER
- THE PROGRESS OF DEGRADATION.—ITS HISTORY
- EVIDENCE OF THE SILURIAN MOLLUSCS.—OF THE FOSSIL FLORA.—ANCIENT TREE
- SUPERPOSITION NOT PARENTAL RELATION.—THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE
- LAMARCKIAN HYPOTHESIS OF THE ORIGIN OF PLANTS.—ITS CONSEQUENCES
- THE TWO FLORAS, MARINE AND TERRESTRIAL.—BEARING OF THE EXPERIENCE ARGUMENT
- THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS IN ITS EMBRYOTIC STATE.—OLDER THAN ITS ALLEGED FOUNDATIONS
- FINAL CAUSES.—THEIR BEARING ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY.—CONCLUSION
Summary
I have said that the curiously-mixed, semi-marine, semi-lacustrine flora of the Lake of Stennis became associated in my mind, like the ancient Asterolepis of Stromness, with the development hypothesis. The fossil, as has been shown, represents not inadequately the geologic evidence in the question,—the mixed vegetation of the lake may be regarded as forming a portion of the phytological evidence.
“All life,” says Oken, “is from the sea. Where the sea organism, by self-elevation, succeeds in attaining into form, there issues forth from it a higher organism. Love arose out of the sea-foam. The primary mucus (that in which electricity originates life) was, and is still, generated in those very parts of the sea where the water is in contact with earth and air, and thus upon the shores. The first creation of the organic took place where the first mountain summits projected out of the water,—indeed, without doubt, in India, if the Himalaya be the highest mountain. The first organic forms, whether plants or animals, emerged from the shallow parts of the sea.” Maillet wrote to exactly the same effect a full century ago. “In a word,” we find him saying, in his “Telliamed,” “do not herbs, plants, roots, grains, and all of this kind that the earth produces and nourishes, come from the sea? Is it not at least natural to think so, since we are certain that all our habitable lands came originally from the sea?
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- Footprints of the CreatorOr, the Asterolepis of Stromness, pp. 219 - 237Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1849