Introductory address delivered before the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art / by Henry W. Acland.

  • Acland, Henry W. (Henry Wentworth), 1815-1900.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address delivered before the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art / by Henry W. Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    ing into existence by millions at each moment of time, is as marvellous and inconceivable by us, as the whole planetary system astronomically considered. The egg contains potentially the material frame with all its marvellous mechanical adjustments, belonging to the species of which its adult is an example. It has moreover the power of transmitting this same material organisation to successive generations, in in- conceivable numbers, for unknown time; and it has, potentially, stored up within itself its animal wants, its instincts and its passions; its character, its emotions, and its mental attributes ; and its free power of action. Of all the marvels, perhaps the greatest is ; that it preserves the even tenor of its way obedient to certain tendencies; and yet that it is Hable to be swayed by a mysterious relation to other organisms to which it has been linked through unknown ages by some common bond. In this direction our knowledge has been in- creased and classified of late years by Sars, Rathke, Von Baer, Martin Barry, and more lately by Parker and Balfour, to that extent that few can follow it. None who do not can conceive either the in- tricacy, the marvel, or the beauty. The intricacy —for it is manifest there are principles of unity which binds things most dissimilar through the