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Rh "And I refuse," cried Michael.

"Rule Britannia!" squeaked Curly.

The infuriated pirates buffeted them in the mouth; and Hook roared out, "That seals your doom. Bring up their mother. Get the plank ready."

They were only boys, and they went white as they saw Jukes and Cecco preparing the fatal plank. But they tried to look brave when Wendy was brought up.

No words of mine can tell you how Wendy despised those pirates. To the boys there was at least some glamour in the pirate calling; but all that she saw was that the ship had not been tidied for years. There was not a porthole on the grimy glass of which you might not have written with your finger "Dirty pig"; and she had already written it on several. But as the boys gathered round her she had no thought, of course, save for them.

"So, my beauty," said Hook, as if he spoke in syrup, "you are to see your children walk the plank."

Fine gentleman though he was, the intensity of his communings had soiled his ruff, and suddenly he knew that she was gazing at it. With a hasty gesture he tried to hide it, but he was too late.

"Are they to die?" asked Wendy, with a look of such frightful contempt that he nearly fainted.

"They are," he snarled. "Silence all," he called Rh

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 With onion rings.—To prepare the onion rings, cut half-inch slices of large mild onions, lay them in a baking dish or pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dot with well-flavored fat. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons water, cover closely, and bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes, or until tender. Serve a meat cake on each onion ring.

Toast the bread on one side. Spread the untoasted side lightly with fat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Season the meat with salt and pepper and add the milk. Spread the meat mixture over the untoasted side of the bread slices, covering evenly to the very edge. Broil by direct heat, under a flame or a grill, for 5 to 10 minutes. Dot with fat, if desired. Serve hot.

Soak the beans overnight, then cook in the same water until almost tender. Add more water if needed. In the meantime cut the suet into small pieces and fry it crisp, add the onion, garlic, and meat and cook for a few minutes. Add this mixture to the beans and season to taste with chili powder, paprika, and salt. Cook slowly for about 1 hour or until the mixture thickens. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking to the pan.

For a meat loaf select one kind of meat or a mixture of two or more kinds. Cut the suet or salt pork into small pieces, and fry until crisp. Cook the celery, parsley, and onion in the fat for a few minutes. Stir in the flour and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly and cooking until thickened. Combine all the ingredients and mix well with your hands. The mixture will be sticky.

The two ways to bake a meat loaf are: (1) Mold the loaf on a piece of tough paper with the hands. Place the meat and paper on a rack in an

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Rh gloatingly, "for a mother's last words to her children."

At this moment Wendy was grand. "These are my last words, dear boys," she said firmly. "I feel that I have a message to you from your real mothers, and it is this: 'We hope our sons will die like English gentlemen.'"

Even the pirates were awed, and Tootles cried out hysterically, "I am going to do what my mother hopes. What are you to do, Nibs?"

"What my mother hopes. What are you to do, Twin?"

"What my mother hopes. John, what are——"

But Hook had found his voice again.

"Tie her up!" he shouted.

It was Smee who tied her to the mast. "See here, honey," he whispered, "I'll save you if you promise to be my mother."

But not even for Smee would she make such a promise. "I would almost rather have no children at all," she said disdainfully.

It is sad to know that not a boy was looking at her as Smee tied her to the mast; the eyes of all were on the plank: that last little walk they were about to take. They were no longer able to hope that they would walk it manfully, for the capacity to think had gone from them; they could stare and shiver only.

Hook smiled on them with his teeth closed, and Rh

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Rh took a step toward Wendy. His intention was to turn her face so that she should see the boys walking the plank one by one. But he never reached her, he never heard the cry of anguish he hoped to wring from her. He heard something else instead.

It was the terrible tick-tick of the crocodile.

They all heard it—pirates, boys, Wendy—and immediately every head was blown in one direction; not to the water whence the sound proceeded, but toward Hook. All knew that what was about to happen concerned him alone, and that from being actors they were suddenly become spectators.

Very frightful was it to see the change that came over him. It was as if he had been clipped at every joint. He fell in a little heap.

The sound came steadily nearer; and in advance of it came this ghastly thought, "the crocodile is about to board the ship"!

Even the iron claw hung inactive; as if knowing that it was no intrinsic part of what the attacking force wanted. Left so fearfully alone, any other man would have lain with his eyes shut where he fell: but the gigantic brain of Hook was still working, and under its guidance he crawled on his knees along the deck as far from the sound as he could go. The pirates respectfully cleared a passage for him, and it was only when he brought up against the bulwarks that he spoke. Rh

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Rh "Hide me!" he cried hoarsely.

They gathered round him, all eyes averted from the thing that was coming aboard. They had no thought of fighting it. It was Fate.

Only when Hook was hidden from them did curiosity loosen the limbs of the boys so that they could rush to the ship's side to see the crocodile climbing it. Then they got the strangest surprise of this Night of Nights; for it was no crocodile that was coming to their aid. It was Peter.

He signed to them not to give vent to any cry of admiration that might arouse suspicion. Then he went on ticking. Rh

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 uncovered shallow roasting pan, and bake in a moderate oven (350° F.). Do not add water. (2) Pack the mixture into a greased pan and bake like a loaf of bread, in a moderately hot oven (375°–400° F.). Either way, bake a meat loaf well done to the center, particularly if there is any pork in the loaf. Allow about 1½ hours for a loaf made of the above ingredients. Serve meat loaf hot or cold.

Add the chopped tomatoes, chopped onion, and bread crumbs or mashed potatoes to the ground meat. Season, mix well, and mold into flat cakes. Dip the cakes in flour, then fry slowly in the fat until well browned on both sides. Remove the cakes and drain in part to take up the fat. Serve with tomato gravy. (p. 26).

Select 1½ to 2 pounds of sausage, bulk or link. To cook bulk sausage, mold cakes about ½ inch thick and fry. In an uncovered pan, cook the cakes slowly and thoroughly until brown and crisp on both sides. Remove the cakes, drain on paper to take up the fat, and keep hot.

To cook link or cased sausage, prick the casing in several places with a fork, lay the pieces in a cold frying pan, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, cover, and steam for a few minutes. Then take off the lid and finish at moderate heat until thoroughly done, turning frequently for even cooking.

With apples.—Slice up tart, firm apples, leaving the skins on. To 3 or 4 tablespoons of sausage fat in the pan, add the apples, sprinkle with sugar, cover, and cook slowly until the apples are tender. Then remove the cover, turn the apples carefully so the pieces will hold their shape, and let them brown. Serve the fried apples on a hot platter with the fried sausage.

With pineapple.—Drain slices of the canned fruit and brown in 3 or 4 tablespoons of the sausage fat. Serve the fried sausage on the pineapple slices on a hot platter.

Baked with cabbage and apples.—Put a layer of shredded raw cabbage into a lightly greased baking dish, add a layer of raw sliced apples, another of cabbage (red or green), and so on. Salt each layer as it is put on and have apples as the top layer. Lay the fried sausage over the top. Mix 1 tablespoon each of vinegar and of the fat from the sausage pan and pour over the contents of the baking dish. Cover and bake until the cabbage and apples are tender. Serve from the dish in which cooked.

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text: Peter and Wendy - Margaret Ogilvy/Chapter 14


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Mix 1 pound each of ground raw pork and veal, add a chopped onion, 1 teaspoon flour, ¼ cup milk, 1 teaspoon salt, a dash of Pepper, and if desired ⅛ teaspoon thyme. Mold into cakes. After browning the cakes on both sides in hot fat, remove most of the fat, cover the pan, and cook the cakes slowly until they are thoroughly done to the center. Serve the pan drippings over the meat.

HE SECRET of making thickened gravy that is free from lumps and will not separate is to blend flour with fat in equal quantity, then add cool or lukewarm liquid gradually while stirring or beating the mixture over low heat. Use 1½ to 2 tablespoons each of flour and fat to 1 cup of liquid. The liquid may be juice that cooks out of roasted or braised meat, or broth made by stewing bones, or tomato juice, or liquor drained off any cooked vegetable, or water, or milk, or cream, or a mixture of these.

Season gravy to taste, but vary the seasonings. In addition to salt and pepper, try tomatoes or chopped parsley, or chopped celery and leaves, or chopped onion, or grated horseradish, or any favorite seasoning herbs. Some cooks like to add a bouillon cube for an extra touch of flavor and color. Browning the flour is another way of improving flavor and color of gravy. Also, the barbecue sauce described below adds zest to gravy. Always serve gravy piping hot.

To make gravy in a roasting pan, start by pouring the drippings out into a bowl or cup. Skim off the fat that rises to the top of the meat juice and set it aside. For 1½ cups of gravy, blend thoroughly in the roasting pan 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of fat from the drippings. Set the pan over low heat and add gradually with constant stirring 1½ cups of cool or lukewarm liquid. Season to taste. If the gravy is too thick, add more liquid. Cook the gravy slowly until smooth and thickened.

Pot roasts and other braised meats give up more of their flavor to the drippings than do oven roasts, so more gravy can usually be made with these dishes. However, the method of making gravy with a pot roast is the same as for an oven roast.

To make tomato gravy with lamb patties or hamburg steak, blend 3 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons of the drippings in the pan, then stir in gradually about 1½ cups of tomato juice, and cook until smooth and

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 thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If desired, add chopped parsley or green pepper.

To make tomato gravy for a roast of pot roast, following directions for savory brown gravy, but use part or all tomato juice for the liquid.

The pan drippings and little brown bits remaining in the frying pan used for hamburg steak, meat patties, or chops are a good start for cream gravy.

For thickened gravy, mix 2 tablespoons flour with 2 tablespoons of the drippings in the frying pan. Add gradually with constant stirring 1 to 1½ cups of cold milk and cook slowly until smooth and thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For unthickened gravy, pour almost all the fat out of the frying pan, but leave the brown bits. Add milk, or water and evaporated milk, boil with constant stirring, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Blend 2 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons of drippings. Add gradually with constant stirring 1½ cups of cool or lukewarm liquid. Cook slowly until smooth and thickened. Add 2 or 3 gingersnaps broken into small pieces, and stir until smooth; strain the gravy, if desired. Or season the gravy with little ginger and sugar instead of the gingersnaps.

Cook all the ingredients, except the flour and fat, for 10 minutes. Strain through a sieve and stir gradually into the blended flour and fat. Cook the sauce for a few minutes stirring constantly until smooth and thickened. Serve piping hot.

Mix the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt and bring to the boiling point. Remove from the fire, add the chopped mint leaves, and allow the sauce to stand for 3 or 4 hours before serving.

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Crack the soup bones. To the bones add all the ingredients except the vinegar, horseradish, and salt. Cover with water and simmer for about 3 hours. The flavor will be improved if the mixture stands overnight in a cold place. Skim off the fat that rises to the top. Heat the remaining mixture, remove and discard the bones, and strain through a sieve. There should be about 1 quart of liquid and pulp. Add the vinegar, horseradish, and salt to taste. Serve the sauce hot with cooked meat. A few dashes of tabasco sauce or other highly seasoned mixtures give extra "pep" to this barbecue sauce.

Cook the onion in the fat for a few minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and quickly stir in the tomatoes, celery, green pepper, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the ham or bacon, parsley, and salt and pepper, and serve at once.

Blend the melted fat and flour thoroughly, gradually stir in the cold milk while heating slowly. Heat and stir constantly until smooth and thickened. Cook over steam for 10 minutes longer. Add the salt.

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 Whip the cream, salt, and sugar, and gradually add the horseradish.

Mix the sugar, cornstarch, and salt; add the cider and raisins. Put the spices tied up in a piece of cheesecloth. Boil the mixture for about 10 minutes and take out the spices. Serve the sauce hot with ham.

VERY GOOD cook knows the value of left-over meat. Many a one has made quite a reputation for her smart ways of turning left-overs to good account. And in her home, the family looks forward with pleasure to the savory hash or scallop or some other excellent dish that follows yesterday's roast or steak or stew. Often times the second or third "edition" is enjoyed even more than the first.

Canned meat has the good points of any other cooked meat so it to is quickly turned into a variety of appetizing dishes, hot or cold.

Of course, there is almost no end to the interesting combinations of cooked meat with other foods. The following recipes are offered as suggestions. They apply equally well to left-overs and canned meat. Where definite quantities of ingredients are given, they will usually make 5 or 6 servings.

Mix thoroughly 1 quart of chopped boiled potatoes, 1 pint of chopped cooked meat, 1 finely chopped onion, and seasonings to taste. Or, grind the cooked meat, boiled potatoes, and an onion together in a food chopper, mix thoroughly, and season to taste.

Mold into flat cakes and fry slowly on both sides until crusty. Or, spread the mixture in an even layer in a lightly greased frying pan and cook slowly until a brown crust forms. Then, cover the pan and turn the hash out so the browned side is on top. Slip the hash carefully back into the frying pan with the uncooked side down, and allow this side also to become brown and crusty. Turn out on a plate, garnish with parsley, and serve.

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 Start with cooked meat and gravy or meat broth. Or, to take the place of gravy or meat broth, dissolve 1 or 2 bouillon cubes in water. Cut the meat in small pieces and brown it in fat. Add diced raw or cooked potatoes, sliced onion, and green pepper, and brown. Add the gravy or broth, and cook slowly on top of the stove, or bake the hash in the oven until it is brown over the top.

Cook onion and celery in the fat for a few minutes, add the tomatoes, and cook for about 20 minutes. If the mixture is too thin, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour mixed to a smooth paste with an equal quantity of cold water. Cook until smooth and thickened. Add the meat, heat thoroughly, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot on crisp toast.

Cut off the stem ends of green peppers, and remove the seeds. Boil the pepper shells for about 5 minutes in lightly salted water, and drain. Mix chopped or ground cooked meat with bread crumbs, cooked rice, or mashed potatoes, add melted fat, an onion chopped fine, and moisten with gravy, milk, chili sauce, or catsup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stuff the peppers with this mixture, cover with fine bread crumbs, and bake in a moderate oven (about 350° F.) for 30 minutes, or until the peppers are tender and the crumbs are brown.

Make thick white sauce with the fat, flour, and milk. Add the bread crumbs, meat, parsley, salt and pepper to taste, and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Fold in the egg whites, beaten stiff. Place the mixture in a greased baking dish or in greased individual baking dishes or custard cups. Set in a pan of warm water and bake in a very moderate oven (325° F.) for 1½ to 2 hours or until the mixture is firm.

Serve the souffle in the dish in which it is cooked, or, if preferred, turn the individual souffles out onto a hot platter. Thin gravy or tomato sauce may be served with the souffle.

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 Stuff peppers with seasoned cooked meat, top with bread crumbs. Brown in a moderate oven.

Make a thick sauce by combining the drippings and flour, and gradually stirring in the milk or gravy while cooking until smooth. Let the sauce stand until cold. Then add the meat and seasonings. Mold the mixture into croquette shapes. Dip into the egg beaten up with the water, roll in the bread crumbs, and allow to stand for an hour or longer in a cold place to dry the coating.

Brown croquettes in 3 to 4 tablespoons of hot fat in a frying pan, or in deep fat. To fry in deep fat, heat the fat in a deep vessel to 350° F., or until hot enough to brown an inch cube of bread in 40 seconds. Place several croquettes at a time in a frying basket and lower slowly into the hot fat and fry to a golden brown. Remove the croquettes and drain on paper to take up the fat.

Or bake croquettes instead of frying, if preferred. Make a stiffer texture by adding about ½ cup soft bread crumbs or mashed potatoes to the above

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 ingredients. Mold the croquettes into flat cakes, coat with crumbs and egg as described. Bake in a greased pan in a hot oven (400° F.) until browned on the bottom; then turn the croquettes to brown them on the other side.

Wash fresh green cabbage leaves and wilt them in hot lightly salted water until they become limp enough to roll. Make the same cooked meat mixture as suggested for stuffed peppers (p. 30), put some of the mixture on each cabbage leaf, and roll it up. Place the rolls in a baking dish, add hot gravy or a very little hot water, cover the dish, and bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about ¾ hour, or until the cabbage is tender.

Make white sauce of the fat, flour, and milk. Add the well-beaten eggs, meat, and seasoning, and mix thoroughly. Pour into greased custard cups. Place the cups in a pan of hot water. Bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) about ¾ hour, or until the mixture is firm in the center. Turn the timbales out and serve hot, with thin gravy or white sauce.

Cook the onion and parsley for a few minutes in the fat, then mix thoroughly with the meat, potatoes, and gravy or milk. Season to taste. Add the beaten egg yolks, then fold in the beaten whites. Pile lightly into a greased baking dish and bake in a moderate oven (350° F.) for 1 hour or until set in the center and lightly browned. Serve in the dish. Tomato sauce (p. 27) is good with beef and potato puff.

Cook the turnips in the boiling water until tender. Thicken the mixture with the flour mixed to a smooth paste with an equal quantity of cold

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 water, then cook several minutes. Add the cooked meat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and pour into a shallow pan or baking dish. Make biscuit dough as described below. Roll the dough thin, about ½ inch, cut into biscuits, and place them over the top of the hot meat mixture so they do not touch each other. Bake in a hot oven (400° F.) for about ½ hour, or until the biscuits are done.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine the fat with the sifted dry ingredients, and add milk or water to make a soft mixture that can be rolled.

Season chopped cooked meat with onion and celery or parsley, moisten slightly with gravy, broth, tomatoes, or chili sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Make a rich dough, following the biscuit recipe above, but using twice as much fat. Roll out portions of the dough in rounds about 6 inches in diameter. On each round place some of the meat filling, fold the dough over and pinch the edges together to make turn-overs. Bake until brown in a hot oven (about 425° F.).

Cook the onion in the drippings of other fat. Add the apples of green tomatoes, cover, and cook until tender. Add the meat (pork, lamb, veal, or beef) and heat thoroughly. If the mixture is too thick, thin it slightly with meat broth, gravy, or water. Season to taste with curry powder and salt. Serve with flaky boiled rice, or with noodles.

Mix the meat, mashed potatoes, and parsley, and season to taste with salt. Mold into flat cakes, and fry in hot fat until brown.

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Make thin white sauce of the fat, flour, and milk. Add salt to taste. Make alternate layers of noodles and meat in a shallow baking dish, pour on the white sauce, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top, and bake about 20 minutes in a moderately hot oven (375° F.).

Make white sauce, using for each cup of milk 1 tablespoon fat and 1½ tablespoons flour. Add ground or chopped cooked ham or smoked shoulder of pork to the white sauce, and season to taste with salt and pepper. A little chopped green pepper or parsley adds color and good flavor. Serve the mixture hot as filling for hot biscuits.

Separate the beef into fairly small pieces and fry in the fat until the meat curls slightly or is crisp. Sprinkle the flour over the meat, gradually add the cold milk, while heating slowly and stirring constantly until smooth and thickened. Serve hot on waffles or crisp toast.

Heat 3 tablespoons fat in a large pan, add 2 to 3 quarts shredded cabbage, cover to keep in the steam, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring thoroughly. Add 2 cups cooked corned beef, in small pieces, and heat piping hot. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and a little vinegar.

Cook the green pepper and onion in the fat for a few minutes. Add the celery, and meat broth or thin gravy. Cover and cook slowly for about 5 minutes. If the mixture needs thickening, mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of corn-starch or flour to a smooth paste with cold water. To the taste add several

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 spoonfuls of the broth or gravy, then mix with the rest of the gravy and cook until smooth and thickened. Add the meat, artichokes or radishes or raw carrots, and season to taste with soy sauce and salt. Heat thoroughly and serve, if desired, with flaky boiled rice and fried noodles.

Toast slices of bread on one side and spread the toasted side with fat. Make into sandwiches with slices of cold roast meat, placing the toasted side next to the meat. Toast the outside of each sandwich, place on hot plates, pour on hot gravy, and garnish with a sprig of parsley and a pickle.

If preferred, heat the meat in the gravy and serve on untoasted bread or rolls.

Hot Spanish sandwich.—Pour hot Spanish sauce (p. 28) instead of the gravy over the cooked sliced meat sandwich.

Make open-faced sandwiches with toasted or untoasted rolls or bread, and slices of cooked beef, veal, fresh pork, or lamb. Serve on hot plates with mild barbecue sauce (p. 28) heated and poured over the sandwiches.

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 Cook sliced onions until tender in meat broth, gravy, or water. Thicken slightly with flour mixed to a smooth paste with an equal quantity of cold water, and cook several minutes longer. Stir in chopped cooked meat and heat thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and add if desired celery seed, or celery tops (fresh or dried), or parsley, or tomato catsup, or chili sauce. Use as the filling for hot sandwiches with bread or hot biscuit or rolls, with plenty of the gravy poured over the top.

Make double-decker sandwiches with slices of toasted bread from which the crust has been removed and the other ingredients arranged in layers of lettuce, bacon or ham, chicken, and tomato, with enough salad dressing to moisten. Insert toothpicks to hold the sandwiches together and garnish with crisp lettuce and radishes, olives, or pickles.

Mix ground cooked ham or cured pork shoulder or other meat with enough fat to spread easily on bread. Make sandwiches with this meat filling. Beat up 1 or 2 eggs with 1 cup of milk, and dip the sandwiches lightly on both sides in the egg and milk. Fry the sandwiches slowly in a small amount of fat until golden brown. Serve hot.

Saw marow bones in sections 2 to 3 inches long. Over each open end put a covering of flour-and-water dough, and tie in a piece of cloth. Put the pieces of marrow bone into a kettle and pour on boiling water to cover. Boil for an hour, then remove the cloth and dough and serve the sections of marrow bone piping hot on pieces of crisp toast.

Marrow cooked in this way is very light in color and delicate in flavor and texture. For marrow with more of its fat cooked out, omit the dough, but tie the pieces of bone in cloth. Boil for 30 to 45 minutes. Or, if the raw marrow is separated from bone, tie the marrow in floured cloth and simmer in water, or cut the marrow in slices, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and flour and fry slowly to a delicate brown.

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 Cooked beef, veal, pork, or lamb, with catsup, or chili sauce, or chopped pickles. Cooked beef with thin slices of mild onion. Cooked corned beef with grated horseradish–especially good on rye bread. Crisp-fried dried beef with shredded lettuce and cooked dried beans. Cooked cured ham or shoulder with mustard and lettuce, or with thin slices of cucumber–goes well on whole-wheat bread. Chopped cooked cured ham or shoulder, or minced crisp-fried bacon, with sliced tomatoes or hard-cooked eggs, and salad dressing. Cooked fresh pork, or veal, or lamb, with lettuce and salad dressing. Two thin slices of cooked lamb with mint, or currant, or plum jelly between. Thin slices of cooked tounge, with water cress. Liver paste (p. 40) with thin slices of mild onion. Any cooked meat ground or finely chopped with raisins or dried apricots, and mixed with salad dressing.

Select a beef bone or a knuckle of veal and crack the bone to get out all the good flavor and food value. Wash the bone, being careful to remove any small slivers, cover with the water in a large kettle, and simmer for about 4 hours, or until the meat is tender. Then add the onions, celery, tomatoes, carrots, turnips, and potatoes to the broth. Simmer gently until the vegetables are tender, but not broken. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the meat with the soup, either left on the bone or ground and added to the soup. Or save the meat to make hash or croquettes.

This recipe makes about 3 quarts of soup. The soup is equally good reheated and served another day.

To make even more substantial soup add rice, or short pieces of macaroni or spaghetti, or pearl barley, or cracked wheat.

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Select beef shank, or neck, or some other inexpensive cut. Cut the meat into small pieces, cover with water, and simmer for 2½ to 3 hours. This makes about 1 pint of well-flavored broth. Then add all the other ingredients except the vinegar, salt, and pepper. Simmer for half an hour. Strain through a thick layer of cheesecloth, add the vinegar, tarragon preferred, and season to taste. Reheat and serve piping hot. If desired, place chopped parsley or a thin slice of lemon in each cup of bouillon.

Select a lamb breast that includes the foreshank. Remove the fat. Crack the bones. Put the lean meat and bones on to cook in water to cover. Add the onion. Soak the barley for an hour in cold water, then add to the soup. Cook the soup for 1½ hours after adding the barley. Remove the meat and bones, being careful to take out bone splinters. There should be 3 to 4 cups of broth. Let the broth cool long enough for the fat to harden so it can be skimmed off. Meanwhile chop the cooked meat. Reheat the skimmed soup and add the turnip and carrot and cook until they are tender. Add to cup or more of the chopped meat. Season the soup with salt and pepper and serve piping hot.

Instead of breast of lamb, the bones from 3 or 4 lamb shoulders may be used to make this quantity of soup.

Simmer a beef bone or knuckle of veal in water to cover for 3 to 4 hours. Pour off the broth, skim the fat from it, and strain through cheesecloth. This should make about 3 pints of well flavored broth. To the broth add the onion, bay leaf, celery, savory, and red pepper and simmer for about an hour. Then add the potatoes and cook until tender. Add the tripe, and season with salt and pepper. Serve hot with chopped parsley on top.

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Wash the tails and cut into short lengths. Brown the pieces in fat, put them into a large kettle, cover with water, add a bay leaf and simmer until the meat is tender enough to fall off the bones. Strain off the broth, and to it add diced vegetables, such as a mixture of onions, carrots, turnips, and potatoes, and cook slowly until the vegetables are tender but not broken. Chop up the meat and serve in the soup. Season to taste.

Boil the vegetables in the ham liquor until they are tender. Then add the milk and ham. When heated, season to taste with salt and pepper.

With wheat.–Follow the recipe above but instead of the vegetables listed use 2 cups of cooked cracked or whole-grain wheat, 2 cups of diced raw carrots, and a slice of onion. Add more milk or ham liquor if needed.

Beef, calf, lamb, and hog liver vary considerably in price, but all can be prepared in tasty ways. Liver has a delicate flavor if properly handled. Scald or pour boiling water over lamb and hog liver before cooking, and drain. Beef and calf liver do not require scalding. Do not overcook liver; use moderate heat and cook only long enough to change the color.

Fried with bacon.–Lay strips of bacon in a cold or moderately hot frying pan, and cook slowly, turning frequently. As soon as the bacon is done, drain on paper to take up the fat, and keep hot. Sprinkle slices of liver with salt, pepper, and flour and cook in the bacon fat at moderate heat until the liver is lightly browned. Serve surrounded by the crisp bacon on a hot platter.

Scalloped with potatoes.–Sprinkle 1 pound sliced liver with salt, pepper, and flour. Brown lightly in fat, and cut into small pieces. Pare and slice 6 or 7 potatoes. Put a layer of the potatoes into a greased baking dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add some of the liver, together with a few slices of onion, and continue until all are used, making the top layer potatoes. Cover with milk, put on a lid, and bake for about an hour in a moderate oven (350° F.), or until the potatoes are tender. At the last remove the lid and allow the potatoes to brown on top.

Cooked rice, macaroni, or noodles may be used instead of potatoes.

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Liver loaf.—Fry 1 to 1½ pounds of liver in fat just long enough to brown on both sides, then grind or chop it very fine. Cook a sliced onion and 3 or 4 stalks of chopped celery for a few minutes in the drippings and mix with the liver and 1 quart mashed potatoes, cooked rice, or oatmeal. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If desired, add fresh or canned tomatoes, catsup, or chili sauce. Place the meat mixture in a greased shallow pan and bake in a moderately hot oven (375°-400° F.) for about an hour.

Liver paste.—Broil or fry slices of liver, or simmer the whole piece in water until tender. Mash, grind, or chop fine the cooked liver, and mix with fat and seasonings—use 2 tablespoons each of chili sauce or catsup, chopped celery, and fat to 1 cup of ground liver. Add salt and pepper to taste. Use the liver paste as spread for sandwiches.

Wash and skin a beef kidney; cut out the fat, blood vessels, and connective tissue. Cover with cold water, heat slowly to boiling, discard the water, and repeat the process until there is no strong odor. Then add about 1 quart of fresh water and simmer the kidney until tender. Remove the kidney and cut into small pieces. Cook diced potatoes and a small onion in the broth if the flavor is mild; if it has a strong flavor, cook the vegetables in water instead. Pour off the liquid and measure it. To each cup, allow about ½ tablespoon of flour for thickening. Blend the flour

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 with an equal quantity of fat and add the liquid gradually with constant stirring over low heat. To this sauce add the potatoes, onion, and kidney. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if desired, chopped parsley and lemon juice.

Select calf or lamb kidneys for broiling. Wash kidneys, remove the outer membrane, split through the center and cut out the fat, blood vessels, and connective tissue. When ready to cook, dip the kidneys in melted fat, lay the pieces in a shallow pan, and broil for 10 to 20 minutes, turning for even cooking. Sprinkle broiled kidneys with salt and pepper, and serve on toast on a hot platter. If desired, garnish with parsley and thin slices of lemon.

Select 1 beef heart, or 2 or 3 calf hearts. Wash and slit the heart, remove gristle and blood vessels. For the stuffing, chop an onion and a stalk of celery and cook in 2 tablespoons of fat, add 2 to 3 cups of soft bread crumbs, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Thyme goes well with heart–add a pinch to the stuffing.

Fill heart with the stuffing; sew up the slit. Brown the heart on all sides in fat; place it in a baking dish or casserole; add ½ cup of water, cover closely, and cook until tender in a very moderate oven (about 300° F.). A beef heart will require about 4 hours. A calf or a hog heart will cook tender in much shorter time–about 1½ hours. Make gravy of the drippings.

Beef heart and lung go well together in stew, loaf, and pickle. To prepare heart and lung wash thoroughly, then remove gristle and the larger blood vessels. Simmer in water to cover. A beef heart and an equal weight of beef lung will probably require 4 to 5 hours to cook tender. If possible let the cooked meat cool in the broth.

In stew with onion gravy.–Make onion gravy as follows: Cook a finely chopped onion for a few minutes in l tablespoon fat. Then stir in 3 tablespoons flour. Add gradually 2 cups of the broth in which the heart and lung were cooked. Dilute the broth with water if the flavor is strong. To the onion gravy add 3 pints of diced cooked heart and lung and heat the mixture thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if desired add also several peppercorns, about ¼ teaspoon thyme, and a dash of red pepper. Serve piping hot.

In loaf or "pudding."–Cook a finely chopped onion for a few minutes in 2 tablespoons fat in a large pan. Add 5 cups ground cooked heart

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 and lung and 1 cup of the broth in which the meat was cooked. Stir in 2 egg yolks, beaten, and cook slowly for a few minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if desired add a little ground mace and chopped parsley. Place the hot mixture in a greased bread pan and chill. Turn out and serve in slices.

In sweet sour pickle.–To 1 cup of the broth in which heart and lung were cooked add 2 tablespoons vinegar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon molasses, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon pickle spices, and ⅛ teaspoon mustard. Boil the mixture for a few minutes, then add 2 cups diced cooked heart and lung and simmer until hot throughout. Season to taste with salt. Serve hot, or chill and serve cold.

If using a fresh tongue, wash, cover with water, add an onion, a sprig of parsley, a bay leaf, several whole black peppercorns or whole cloves, and salt. Simmer (do not boil) for 2½ to 3 hours, or until the meat is tender. Skin the tongue, slice, and serve hot, or allow it to cool in the liquid after skinning, and serve cold.

If tongue is smoked, soak it overnight. Put on to cook in water to cover, bring to the boiling point, and discard the water. Repeat several times if the water tastes very salty. Add fresh water and cook slowly until the tongue is tender.

Select a calf tongue or several lamb tongues. Cover with water, bring to the boiling point, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain, remove skin and gristle, and lay the skinned tongue in a large baking dish. In the meantime, cook about 1½ quarts of sliced vegetables (onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, and green pepper) in about 2 tablespoons of fat for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put the vegetables over and around the tongue in the baking dish and add 1 cup hot water. Cover the baking dish and cook in a moderately hot oven (375° F.) for about 1 hour or until the meat is tender. Make gravy with the drippings.

Wash the sweerbreads. Whether sweetbreads are to be broiled, fried, creamed, or used in salad, simmer them for about 20 minutes in salted water to cover, then allow them to cool in the liquor. Remove the skin and tough membranes, leaving tender, lobe-shaped pieces of delicate flavor. Save the broth.

Broiled.–Keep the cooked lobes whole, place them in a shallow pan, pour over them melted fat, and brown on all sides in the broiler. Sprinkle

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 the sweetbreads with salt and serve on a hot platter with a border of green peas, if desired.

Fried.–Either keep the cooked lobes whole or divide them into a few pieces. Dip the pieces into a beaten egg diluted with 1 tablespoon of flour, sprinkle with salt and flour, and fry slowly in a generous quantity of fat.

Creamed.–Cut the cooked lobes of the sweetbreads into small pieces. Sprinkle with salt and flour, brown lightly in fat, and remove the browned pieces from the pan. To make sauce, blend 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour with the drippings in the pan, stir in 1 to 2 cups of liquid–the liquor in which the sweetbreads were cooked and milk or cream or both–and cook until smooth. Serve the sauce over the sweetbreads, on toast or in patty shells.

In salad.–Cut cooked sweetbreads into small pieces, and mix with chopped celery and salad dressing. Serve on crisp lettuce.

Wash brains, soak in cold water (with or without salt) for half an hour, then remove blood vessels and membrane. Whatever way brains are to be served they are easier to handle if precooked. To do this cover the brains with slightly salted cold water and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cool in the broth.

Breaded.–Drain the cooked and cooled brains and separate into fairly large pieces. Dip them into a beaten egg, diluted with 1 tablespoon of flour, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roll in finely sifted bread crumbs, and fry slowly in fat. Serve hot. Tomato sauce (p. 27) is good with breaded brains.

Creamed.–Drain the cooked and cooled brains. Cut into fairly small pieces, sprinkle lightly with salt and flour, brown delicately in fat, then remove the browned pieces from the pan. To make sauce blend 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour with the drippings in the pan, stir in 1 to 2 cups of liquid–the liquor in which the brains were precooked and milk or cream or broth–and cook until smooth. Serve the brains and sauce on toast or in patty shells or with waffles. If desired, add chopped parsley or paprika.

In croquettes.–Cook 1½ pounds of brains as described and cool them in the broth. Drain the brains and cut into small pieces; sprinkle with salt, pepper, and flour; brown lightly in fat and remove from the frying pan. To get all the good flavor rinse the pan with ½ cup of the broth in which the brains were cooked. Make a very thick sauce with 3 tablespoons of fat, 5 tablespoons of flour, 1 cup of milk, and the broth used to rinse the frying pan. Let the sauce stand until cold, then add the brains, and ¾ cup sifted dry bread crumbs. Season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper and, if desired add chopped parsley, and paprika. Mold the

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 into croquette shapes or flat cakes, dip in beaten egg and crumbs, and fry in either shallow or deep fat, or bake, as described under Beef or Veal Croquettes (p. 31).

Scrambled with eggs.–Cook about 1 pound of brains and cool them in the broth. Drain the brains, cut into small pieces, and brown in 2 tablespoons of fat. In the meantime beat 4 eggs with ½ cup of milk, and pour into the pan containing the browned brains. Cook slowly, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Do not overcook. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on a hot platter. Garnish with parsley.

In salad.–Cut cooked brains into small pieces, and mix with chopped celery and salad dressing. Serve on crisp lettuce.

Select pickled or fresh tripe which has already been cooked, or simmer uncooked tripe in water for about 6 hours or until tender. If possible, let the tripe cool in the broth.

Fried.–Cut cooked tripe into pieces for serving. Before frying the tripe dip it in a thin batter. Good proportions for this batter are 1 egg, 1 cup milk, 1 cup sifted flour, and 1 teaspoon salt. Or dip tripe in egg and bread crumbs, then let the coating dry before frying the tripe. Brown the tripe in 2 to 3 tablespoons fat. Serve hot. If desired, garnish with parsley and slices of lemon.

Broiled.–Cut cooked tripe into pieces for serving. Dip the pieces in melted fat, and brown them on both sides in the broiler. Serve hot, garnished with parsley and slices of lemon if desired.

Creamed.–Cut cooked tripe into inch squares or into finger lengths, brown lightly in 1 to 2 tablespoons fat, and serve in medium white sauce, seasoned to taste.

Select a beef spleen, or 5 or 6 pork spleens. Wash spleen and remove the thin outer skin and fat. Put spleen on to cook in water to cover and simmer until tender. Beef spleen will probably require 3 hours, and pork spleen 2 hours. If possible, let the meat cool in the broth. Cut the cooked spleen into inch cubes.

Cook the onion in the fat for a few minutes, then add the flour and stir until blended. Gradually add the spleen broth and water, stirring constantly over low heat, and cook until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and if desired add the thyme and celery seed. Lastly add the cooked spleen and heat thoroughly. Serve piping hot.

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Boil the potatoes in their jackets, skin them, and slice or cut the potatoes in cubes. Add the onion, salad dressing and salt to taste and heat the mixture piping hot. In the meantime cook the sausage as directed under Fried Sausage (p. 25). Or, if using frankfurters, wash them, cover with boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve the meat hot on the hot potato salad and, if desired, add a dash of paprika and garnish with pickles or strips of green pepper or pimiento.

Cut the cold macaroni into small pieces. Mix lightly with the other ingredients. Chill and serve on crisp lettuce, water cress, or endive.

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To 3 cups of cold cooked veal or fresh pork, cut into small pieces of even size, add thick salad dressing. Let the mixture stand in a cold place for several hours. Shortly before serving, add 2 cups of cut celery and more salad dressing if needed to coat all the pieces. Salt to taste.

Hard-cooked eggs, sliced or cut in quarters, may be used as a garnish, or mixed with the salad to make it go further.

When ready to serve, pile the salad on crisp lettuce or in tomato cups. Or serve in long rolls from which the centers have been scraped out. Or use the salad as a filling for sandwiches.

Crack the bones. Wash the knuckle well and cover with the 2 quarts cold water. Add the onion. Heat slowly to the boiling point, then simmer for about 3 hours, or until the meat is tender. Pour off and measure the liquid. There should be about 3 cups. Remove the meat from the bones, discarding all gristle and bone splinters, and either grind or chop the meat very fine. Soften the gelatin in the 2 tablespoons of cold water and add to the hot stock, chill, and when partly set add the meat and seasonings, and stir until well mixed. Rinse a large mold or individual molds, pour in the mixture, and allow to stand some hours or overnight in a refrigerator or other cold place. When thoroughly stiffened, turn the jellied meat out on crisp lettuce. Serve with salad dressing. Garnish with thinly sliced cucumber and tomato, if desired.

Chopped crisp bacon or ham, diced apples or sliced bananas, and salad dressing.

Chopped crisp bacon or ham with sliced or chopped raw vegetables–tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, celery, tender leaves of spinach–and salad dressing.

Chopped crisp bacon or ham with cooked green vegetables–snap beans, asparagus, peas–and salad dressing.

Crisp fried dried beef broken in pieces, or chopped cooked corned beef, cooked dried beans or peas, chopped onion, and salad dressing.

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User:Andyzweb/Books/the art of war

 * The Art of War (Sun)
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section I
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section II
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section III
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section IV
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section V
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section VI
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section VII
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section VIII
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section IX
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section X
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section XI
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section XII
 * The Art of War (Sun)/Section XIII

title: User:Andyzweb/Books/the art of war


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pusey, Edward Bouverie


text: Edward Pusey

title: Edward Pusey


text: User:Alex brollo/Header test

title: User:Alex brollo/Header test


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.

 * Difficulties of the theory of descent with modification — Absence or rarity of transitional varieties — Transitions in habits of life — Diversified habits in the same species — Species with habits widely different from those of their allies — Organs of extreme perfection — Modes of transition — Cases of difficulty — Natura non facit saltum — Organs of small importance — Organs not in all cases absolutely perfect — The law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence embraced by the theory of Natural Selection.

before the reader has arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of difficulties will have occurred to him. Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree staggered; but, to the best of my judgment, the greater number are only apparent, and those that are real are not, I think, fatal to the theory.

These difficulties and objections may be classed under the following heads:— First, why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?

Secondly, is it possible that an animal having, for instance, the structure and habits of a bat, could have been formed by the modification of some other animal with widely different habits and structure? Can we believe that natural selection could produce, on the one hand, an organ of trifling importance, such as the tail of a giraffe, which serves as a fly-flapper, and, on the other hand, an organ so wonderful as the eye?

Thirdly, can instincts be acquired and modified through natural selection? What shall we say to the instinct which leads the bee to make cells, and which has practically anticipated the discoveries of profound mathematicians?

Fourthly, how can we account for species, when crossed, being sterile and producing sterile offspring, whereas, when varieties are crossed, their fertility is unimpaired?

The two first heads will be here discussed; some miscellaneous

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 objections in the following chapter; Instinct and Hybridism in the two succeeding chapters.

On the absence or rarity of transitional varieties.— As natural selection acts solely by the preservation of profitable modifications, each new form will tend in a fully-stocked country to take the place of, and finally to exterminate, its own less improved parent-form and other less-favoured forms with which it comes into competition. Thus extinction and natural selection go hand in hand. Hence, if we look at each species as descended from some unknown form, both the parent and all the transitional varieties will generally have been exterminated by the very process of the formation and perfection of the new form.

But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth? It will be more convenient to discuss this question in the chapter on the imperfection of the geological record; and I will here only state that I believe the answer mainly lies in the record being incomparably less perfect than is generally supposed. The crust of the earth is a vast museum; but the natural collections have been imperfectly made, and only at long intervals of time.

But it may be urged that when several closely allied species inhabit the same territory, we surely ought to find at the present time many transitional forms. Let us take a simple case: in travelling from north to south over a continent, we generally meet at successive intervals with closely allied or representative species, evidently filling nearly the same place in the natural economy of the land. These representative species often meet and interlock; and as the one becomes rarer and rarer, the other becomes more and more frequent, till the one replaces the other. But if we compare these species where they intermingle, they are generally as absolutely distinct from each other in every detail of structure as are specimens taken from the metropolis inhabited by each. By my theory these allied species are descended from a common parent; and during the process of modification, each has become adapted to the conditions of life of its own region, and has supplanted and exterminated its original parent-form and all the transitional varieties between its past and present states. Hence we ought not to expect at the present time to meet with numerous transitional varieties in each region, though they must have existed there, and may be embedded there in a fossil condition. But in the intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now find closely-linking intermediate varieties? This difficulty for a long time

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 quite confounded me. But I think it can be in large part explained.

In the first place we should be extremely cautious in inferring, because an area is now continuous, that it has been continuous during a long period. Geology would lead us to believe that most continents have been broken up into islands even during the later tertiary periods; and in such islands distinct species might have been separately formed without the possibility of intermediate varieties existing in the intermediate zones. By changes in the form of the land and of climate, marine areas now continuous must often have existed within recent times in a far less continuous and uniform condition than at present. But I will pass over this way of escaping from the difficulty; for I believe that many perfectly defined species have been formed on strictly continuous areas; though I do not doubt that the formerly broken condition of areas now continuous, has played an important part in the formation of new species, more especially with freely-crossing and wandering animals.

In looking at species as they are now distributed over a wide area, we generally find them tolerably numerous over a large territory, then becoming somewhat abruptly rarer and rarer on the confines, and finally disappearing. Hence the neutral territory between two representative species is generally narrow in comparison with the territory proper to each. We see the same fact in ascending mountains, and sometimes it is quite remarkable how abruptly, as Alph. De Candolle has observed, a common alpine species disappears. The same fact has been noticed by E. Forbes in sounding the depths of the sea with the dredge. To those who look at climate and the physical conditions of life as the all-important elements of distribution, these facts ought to cause surprise, as climate and height or depth graduate away insensibly. But when we bear in mind that almost every species, even in its metropolis, would increase immensely in numbers, were it not for other competing species; that nearly all either prey on or serve as prey for others; in short, that each organic being is either directly or indirectly related in the most important manner to other organic beings, — we see that the range of the inhabitants of any country by no means exclusively depends on insensibly changing physical conditions, but in large part on the presence of other species, on which it lives, or by which it is destroyed, or with which it comes into competition; and as these species are already defined objects, not blending one into another by insensible gradations, the range of any one species, depending as it does on the range of others, will tend to be sharply defined. Moreover, each species on the confines

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 of its range, where it exists in lessened numbers, will, during fluctuations in the number of its enemies or of its prey, or in the nature of the seasons, be extremely liable to utter extermination; and thus its geographical range will come to be still more sharply defined.

As allied or representative species, when inhabiting a continuous area, are generally distributed in such a manner that each has a wide range, with a comparatively narrow neutral territory between them, in which they become rather suddenly rarer and rarer; then, as varieties do not essentially differ from species, the same rule will probably apply to both; and if we take a varying species inhabiting a very large area, we shall have to adapt two varieties to two large areas, and a third variety to a narrow intermediate zone. The intermediate variety, consequently, will exist in lesser numbers from inhabiting a narrow and lesser area; and practically, as far as I can make out, this rule holds good with varieties in a state of nature. I have met with striking instances of the rule in the case of varieties intermediate between well-marked varieties in the genus Balanus. And it would appear from information given me by Mr. Watson, Dr. Asa Gray, and Mr. Wollaston, that generally, when varieties intermediate between two other forms occur, they are much rarer numerically than the forms which they connect. Now, if we may trust these facts and inferences, and conclude that varieties linking two other varieties together generally have existed in lesser numbers than the forms which they connect, then we can understand why intermediate varieties should not endure for very long periods:— why, as a general rule, they should be exterminated and disappear, sooner than the forms which they originally linked together.

For any form existing in lesser numbers would, as already remarked, run a greater chance of being exterminated than one existing in large numbers; and in this particular case the intermediate form would be eminently liable to the inroads of closely allied forms existing on both sides of it. But it is a far more important consideration, that during the process of further modification, by which two varieties are supposed to be converted and perfected into two distinct species, the two which exist in larger numbers, from inhabiting larger areas, will have a great advantage over the intermediate variety, which exists in smaller numbers in a narrow and intermediate zone. For forms existing in larger numbers will have a better chance, within any given period, of presenting further favourable variations for natural selection to seize on, than will the rarer forms which exist in lesser numbers. Hence, the more common forms, in the race for life, will tend to beat and supplant the less common forms, for these will be more

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 slowly modified and improved. It is the same principle which, as I believe, accounts for the common species in each country, as shown in the second chapter, presenting on an average a greater number of well-marked varieties than do the rarer species. I may illustrate what I mean by supposing three varieties of sheep to be kept, one adapted to an extensive mountainous region; a second to a comparatively narrow, hilly tract; and a third to the wide plains at the base; and that the inhabitants are all trying with equal steadiness and skill to improve their stocks by selection; the chances in this case will be strongly in favour of the great holders on the mountains or on the plains improving their breeds more quickly than the small holders on the intermediate narrow, hilly tract; and consequently the improved mountain or plain breed will soon take the place of the less improved hill breed; and thus the two breeds, which originally existed in greater numbers, will come into close contact with each other, without the interposition of the supplanted, intermediate hill-variety.

To sum up, I believe that species come to be tolerably well-defined objects, and do not at any one period present an inextricable chaos of varying and intermediate links: first, because new varieties are very slowly formed, for variation is a slow process, and natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differences or variations occur, and until a place in the natural polity of the country can be better filled by some modification of some one or more of its inhabitants. And such new places will depend on slow changes of climate, or on the occasional immigration of new inhabitants, and, probably, in a still more important degree, on some of the old inhabitants becoming slowly modified, with the new forms thus produced and the old ones acting and reacting on each other. So that, in any one region and at any one time, we ought to see only a few species presenting slight modifications of structure in some degree permanent; and this assuredly we do see.

Secondly, areas now continuous must often have existed within the recent period as isolated portions, in which many forms, more especially among the classes which unite for each birth and wander much, may have separately been rendered sufficiently distinct to rank as representative species. In this case, intermediate varieties between the several representative species and their common parent, must formerly have existed within each isolated portion of the land, but these links during the process of natural selection will have been supplanted and exterminated, so that they will no longer be found in a living state.

Thirdly, when two or more varieties have been formed in different

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 portions of a strictly continuous area, intermediate varieties will, it is probable, at first have been formed in the intermediate zones, but they will generally have had a short duration. For these intermediate varieties will, from reasons already assigned (namely from what we know of the actual distribution of closely allied or representative species, and likewise of acknowledged varieties), exist in the intermediate zones in lesser numbers than the varieties which they tend to connect. From this cause alone the intermediate varieties will be liable to accidental extermination; and during the process of further modification through natural selection, they will almost certainly be beaten and supplanted by the forms which they connect; for these, from existing in greater numbers will, in the aggregate, present more varieties, and thus be further improved through natural selection and gain further advantages.

Lastly, looking not to any one time, but at all time, if my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking closely together all the species of the same group, must assuredly have existed; but the very process of natural selection constantly tends, as has been so often remarked, to exterminate the parent forms and the intermediate links. Consequently evidence of their former existence could be found only among fossil remains, which are preserved, as we shall attempt to show in a future chapter, in an extremely imperfect and intermittent record.

On the Origin and Transition of Organic Beings with peculiar Habits and Structure.— It has been asked by the opponents of such views as I hold, how, for instance, could a land carnivorous animal have been converted into one with aquatic habits; for how could the animal in its transitional state have subsisted? It would be easy to show that there now exist carnivorous animals presenting close intermediate grades from strictly terrestrial to aquatic habits; and as each exists by a struggle for life, it is clear that each must be well adapted to its place in nature. Look at the Mustela vison of North America, which has webbed feet, and which resembles an otter in its fur, short legs, and form of tail; during summer this animal dives for and preys on fish, but during the long winter it leaves the frozen waters, and preys, like other polecats on mice and land animals. If a different case had been taken, and it had been asked how an insectivorous quadruped could possibly have been converted into a flying bat, the question would have been far more difficult to answer. Yet I think such difficulties have little weight.

Here, as on other occasions, I lie under a heavy disadvantage, for, out of the many striking cases which I have collected, I can give only one or two instances of transitional habits and structures in

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 allied species; and of diversified habits, either constant or occasional, in the same species. And it seems to me that nothing less than a long list of such cases is sufficient to lessen the difficulty in any particular case like that of the bat.

Look at the family of squirrels; here we have the finest gradation from animals with their tails only slightly flattened, and from others, as Sir J. Richardson has remarked, with the posterior part of their bodies rather wide and with the skin on their flanks rather full, to the so-called flying squirrels; and flying squirrels have their limbs and even the base of the tail united by a broad expanse of skin, which serves as a parachute and allows them to glide through the air to an astonishing distance from tree to tree. We cannot doubt that each structure is of use to each kind of squirrel in its own country, by enabling it to escape birds or beasts of prey, or to collect food more quickly, or, as there is reason to believe, to lessen the danger from occasional falls. But it does not follow from this fact that the structure of each squirrel is the best that it is possible to conceive under all possible conditions. Let the climate and vegetation change, let other competing rodents or new beasts of prey immigrate, or old ones become modified, and all analogy would lead us to believe that some, at least, of the squirrels would decrease in numbers or become exterminated, unless they also become modified and improved in structure in a corresponding manner. Therefore, I can see no difficulty, more especially under changing conditions of life, in the continued preservation of individuals with fuller and fuller flank-membranes, each modification being useful, each being propagated, until, by the accumulated effects of this process of natural selection, a perfect so-called flying squirrel was produced.

Now look at the Galeopithecus or so-called flying lemur, which was formerly ranked among bats, but is now believed to belong to the Insectivora. An extremely wide flank-membrane stretches from the corners of the jaw to the tail, and includes the limbs with the elongated fingers. This flank- membrane is furnished with an extensor muscle. Although no graduated links of structure, fitted for gliding through the air, now connect the Galeopithecus with the other Insectivora, yet there is no difficulty in supposing that such links formerly existed, and that each was developed in the same manner as with the less perfectly gliding squirrels; each grade of structure having been useful to its possessor. Nor can I see any insuperable difficulty in further believing it possible that the membrane-connected fingers and fore-arm of the Galeopithecus might have been greatly lengthened by natural selection; and this, as far as the

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 organs of flight are concerned, would have converted the animal into a bat. In certain bats in which the wing-membrane extends from the top of the shoulder to the tail and includes the hind-legs, we perhaps see traces of an apparatus originally fitted for gliding through the air rather than for flight.

If about a dozen genera of birds were to become extinct, who would have ventured to surmise that birds might have existed which used their wings solely as flappers, like the logger headed duck (Micropterus of Eyton); as fins in the water and as front legs on the land, like the penguin; as sails, like the ostrich; and functionally for no purpose, like the Apteryx? Yet the structure of each of these birds is good for it, under the conditions of life to which it is exposed, for each has to live by a struggle: but it is not necessarily the best possible under all possible conditions. It must not be inferred from these remarks that any of the grades of wing-structure here alluded to, which perhaps may all be the result of disuse, indicate the steps by which birds actually acquired their perfect power of flight; but they serve to show what diversified means of transition are at least possible.

Seeing that a few members of such water-breathing classes as the Crustacea and Mollusca are adapted to live on the land; and seeing that we have flying birds and mammals, flying insects of the most diversified types, and formerly had flying reptiles, it is conceivable that flying-fish, which now glide far through the air, slightly rising and turning by the aid of their fluttering fins, might have been modified into perfectly winged animals. If this had been effected, who would have ever imagined that in an early transitional state they had been inhabitants of the open ocean, and had used their incipient organs of flight exclusively, so far as we know, to escape being devoured by other fish?

When we see any structure highly perfected for any particular habit, as the wings of a bird for flight, we should bear in mind that animals displaying early transitional grades of the structure will seldom have survived to the present day, for they will have been supplanted by their successors, which were gradually rendered more perfect through natural selection. Furthermore, we may conclude that transitional states between structures fitted for very different habits of life will rarely have been developed at an early period in great numbers and under many subordinate forms. Thus, to return to our imaginary illustration of the flying-fish, it does not seem probable that fishes capable of true flight would have been developed under many subordinate forms, for taking prey of many kinds in many ways, on the land and in the water, until their organs of flight

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 had come to a high stage of perfection, so as to have given them a decided advantage over other animals in the battle for life. Hence the chance of discovering species with transitional grades of structure in a fossil condition will always be less, from their having existed in lesser numbers, than in the case of species with fully developed structures.

I will now give two or three instances, both of diversified and of changed habits, in the individuals of the same species. In either case it would be easy for natural selection to adapt the structure of the animal to its changed habits, or exclusively to one of its several habits. It is, however, difficult to decide and immaterial for us, whether habits generally change first and structure afterwards; or whether slight modifications of structure lead to changed habits; both probably often occurring almost simultaneously. Of cases of changed habits it will suffice merely to allude to that of the many British insects which now feed on exotic plants, or exclusively on artificial substances. Of diversified habits innumerable instances could be given: I have often watched a tyrant flycatcher (Saurophagus sulphuratus) in South America, hovering over one spot and then proceeding to another, like a kestrel, and at other times standing stationary on the margin of water, and then dashing into it like a kingfisher at a fish. In our own country the larger titmouse (Parus major) may be seen climbing branches, almost like a creeper; it sometimes, like a shrike, kills small birds by blows on the head; and I have many times seen and heard it hammering the seeds of the yew on a branch, and thus breaking them like a nuthatch. In North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, almost like a whale, insects in the water.

As we sometimes see individuals following habits different from those proper to their species and to the other species of the same genus, we might expect that such individuals would occasionally give rise to new species, having anomalous habits, and with their structure either slightly or considerably modified from that of their type. And such instances occur in nature. Can a more striking instance of adaptation be given than that of a woodpecker for climbing trees and seizing insects in the chinks of the bark? Yet in North America there are woodpeckers which feed largely on fruit, and others with elongated wings which chase insects on the wing. On the plains of La Plata, where hardly a tree grows, there is a woodpecker (Colaptes campestris) which has two toes before and two behind, a long- pointed tongue, pointed tail-feathers, sufficiently stiff to support the bird in a vertical position on a post, but not so

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 stiff as in the typical wood-peckers, and a straight strong beak. The beak, however, is not so straight or so strong as in the typical woodpeckers but it is strong enough to bore into wood. Hence this Colaptes, in all the essential parts of its structure, is a woodpecker. Even in such trifling characters as the colouring, the harsh tone of the voice, and undulatory flight, its close blood-relationship to our common woodpecker is plainly declared; yet, as I can assert, not only from my own observations, but from those of the accurate Azara, in certain large districts it does not climb trees, and it makes its nest in holes in banks! In certain other districts, however, this same woodpecker, as Mr. Hudson states, frequents trees, and bores holes in the trunk for its nest. I may mention as another illustration of the varied habits of this genus, that a Mexican Colaptes has been described by De Saussure as boring holes into hard wood in order to lay up a store of acorns.

Petrels are the most aërial and oceanic of birds, but, in the quiet sounds of Tierra del Fuego, the Puffinuria berardi, in its general habits, in its astonishing power of diving, in its manner of swimming and of flying when made to take flight, would be mistaken by any one for an auk or a grebe; nevertheless, it is essentially a petrel, but with many parts of its organisation profoundly modified in relation to its new habits of life; whereas the woodpecker of La Plata has had its structure only slightly modified. In the case of the water-ouzel, the acutest observer, by examining its dead body, would never have suspected its sub-aquatic habits; yet this bird, which is allied to the thrush family, subsists by diving, — using its wings under water and grasping stones with its feet. All the members of the great order of Hymenopterous insects are terrestrial, excepting the genus Proctotrupes, which Sir John Lubbock has discovered to be aquatic in its habits; it often enters the water and dives about by the use not of its legs but of its wings, and remains as long as four hours beneath the surface; yet it exhibits no modification in structure in accordance with its abnormal habits.

He who believes that each being has been created as we now see it, must occasionally have felt surprise when he has met with an animal having habits and structure not in agreement. What can be plainer than that the webbed feet of ducks and geese are formed for swimming? Yet there are upland geese with webbed feet which rarely go near the water; and no one except Audubon, has seen the frigate-bird, which has all its four toes webbed, alight on the surface of the ocean. On the other hand, grebes and coots are eminently aquatic, although their toes are only bordered by membrane. What seems plainer than that the long toes, not furnished with membrane

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 of the Grallatores, are formed for walking over swamps and floating plants? — the water-hen and landrail are members of this order, yet the first is nearly as aquatic as the coot, and the second is nearly as terrestrial as the quail or partridge. In such cases, and many others could be given, habits have changed without a corresponding change of structure. The webbed feet of the upland goose may be said to have become almost rudimentary in function, though not in structure. In the frigate-bird, the deeply scooped membrane between the toes shows that structure has begun to change.

He who believes in separate and innumerable acts of creation may say, that in these cases it has pleased the Creator to cause a being of one type to take the place of one belonging to another type; but this seems to me only restating the fact in dignified language. He who believes in the struggle for existence and in the principle of natural selection, will acknowledge that every organic being is constantly endeavouring to increase in numbers; and that if any one being varies ever so little, either in habits or structure, and thus gains an advantage over some other inhabitant of the same country, it will seize on the place of that inhabitant, however different that may be from its own place. Hence it will cause him no surprise that there should be geese and frigate-birds with webbed feet, living on the dry land and rarely alighting on the water, that there should be long-toed corncrakes, living in meadows instead of in swamps; that there should be woodpeckers where hardly a tree grows; that there should be diving thrushes and diving Hymenoptera, and petrels with the habits of auks.

Organs of extreme Perfection and Complication.

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree. When it was first said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei, as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science. Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye

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 could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself originated; but I may remark that, as some of the lowest organisms in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibility.

In searching for the gradations through which an organ in any species has been perfected, we ought to look exclusively to its lineal progenitors; but this is scarcely ever possible, and we are forced to look to other species and genera of the same group, that is to the collateral descendants from the same parent-form, in order to see what gradations are possible, and for the chance of some gradations having been transmitted in an unaltered or little altered condition. But the state of the same organ in distinct classes may incidentally throw light on the steps by which it has been perfected.

The simplest organ which can be called an eye consists of an optic nerve, surrounded by pigment-cells and covered by translucent skin, but without any lens or other refractive body. We may, however, according to M. Jourdain, descend even a step lower and find aggregates of pigment-cells, apparently serving as organs of vision, without any nerves, and resting merely on sarcodic tissue. Eyes of the above simple nature are not capable of distinct vision, and serve only to distinguish light from darkness. In certain star-fishes, small depressions in the layer of pigment which surrounds the nerve are filled, as described by the author just quoted, with transparent gelatinous matter, projecting with a convex surface, like the cornea in the higher animals. He suggests that this serves not to form an image, but only to concentrate the luminous rays and render their perception more easy. In this concentration of the rays we gain the first and by far the most important step towards the formation of a true, picture-forming eye; for we have only to place the naked extremity of the optic nerve, which in some of the lower animals lies deeply buried in the body, and in some near the surface, at the right distance from the concentrating apparatus, and an image will be formed on it.

In the great class of the Articulata, we may start from an optic nerve simply coated with pigment, the latter sometimes forming a sort of pupil, but destitute of lens or other optical contrivance. With insects it is now known that the numerous facets on the cornea of their great compound eyes form true lenses, and that the cones include curiously modified nervous filaments. But these

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 organs in the Articulata are so much diversified that Muller formerly made three main classes with seven subdivisions, besides a fourth main class of aggregated simple eyes.

When we reflect on these facts, here given much too briefly, with respect to the wide, diversified, and graduated range of structure in the eyes of the lower animals; and when we bear in mind how small the number of all living forms must be in comparison with those which have become extinct, the difficulty ceases to be very great in believing that natural selection may have converted the simple apparatus of an optic nerve, coated with pigment and invested by transparent membrane, into an optical instrument as perfect as is possessed by any member of the Articulate Class.

He who will go thus far, ought not to hesitate to go one step further, if he finds on finishing this volume that large bodies of facts, otherwise inexplicable, can be explained by the theory of modification through natural selection; he ought to admit that a structure even as perfect as an eagle's eye might thus be formed, although in this case he does not know the transitional states. It has been objected that in order to modify the eye and still preserve it as a perfect instrument, many changes would have to be effected simultaneously, which, it is assumed, could not be done through natural selection; but as I have attempted to show in my work on the variation of domestic animals, it is not necessary to suppose that the modifications were all simultaneous, if they were extremely slight and gradual. Different kinds of modification would, also, serve for the same general purpose: as Mr. Wallace has remarked, "if a lens has too short or too long a focus, it may be amended either by an alteration of curvature, or an alteration of density; if the curvature be irregular, and the rays do not converge to a point, then any increased regularity of curvature will be an improvement. So the contraction of the iris and the muscular movements of the eye are neither of them essential to vision, but only improvements which might have been added and perfected at any stage of the construction of the instrument." Within the highest division of the animal kingdom, namely, the Vertebrata, we can start from an eye so simple, that it consists, as in the lancelet, of a little sack of transparent skin, furnished with a nerve and lined with pigment, but destitute of any other apparatus. In fishes and reptiles, as Owen has remarked, "the range of gradation of dioptric structures is very great." It is a significant fact that even in man, according to the high authority of Virchow, the beautiful crystalline lens is formed in the embryo by an accumulation of epidermic cells, lying in a sack-like fold of the skin; and the vitreous body is formed

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 from embryonic subcutaneous tissue. To arrive, however, at a just conclusion regarding the formation of the eye, with all its marvellous yet not absolutely perfect characters, it is indispensable that the reason should conquer the imagination; but I have felt the difficulty far to keenly to be surprised at others hesitating to extend the principle of natural selection to so startling a length.

It is scarcely possible to avoid comparing the eye with a telescope. We know that this instrument has been perfected by the long-continued efforts of the highest human intellects; and we naturally infer that the eye has been formed by a somewhat analogous process. But may not this inference be presumptuous? Have we any right to assume that the Creator works by intellectual powers like those of man? If we must compare the eye to an optical instrument, we ought in imagination to take a thick layer of transparent tissue, with spaces filled with fluid, and with a nerve sensitive to light beneath, and then suppose every part of this layer to be continually changing slowly in density, so as to separate into layers of different densities and thicknesses, placed at different distances from each other, and with the surfaces of each layer slowly changing in form. Further we must suppose that there is a power, represented by natural selection or the survival of the fittest, always intently watching each slight alteration in the transparent layers; and carefully preserving each which, under varied circumstances, in any way or degree, tends to produce a distincter image. We must suppose each new state of the instrument to be multiplied by the million; each to be preserved until a better is produced, and then the old ones to be all destroyed. In living bodies, variation will cause the slight alteration, generation will multiply them almost infinitely, and natural selection will pick out with unerring skill each improvement. Let this process go on for millions of years; and during each year on millions of individuals of many kinds; and may we not believe that a living optical instrument might thus be formed as superior to one of glass, as the works of the Creator are to those of man?

Modes of transition.

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case. No doubt many organs exist of which we do not know the transitional grades, more especially if we look to much-isolated species, around which, according to the theory, there has been much extinction. Or again, if we take

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 an organ common to all the members of a class, for in this latter case the organ must have been originally formed at a remote period, since which all the many members of the class have been developed; and in order to discover the early transitional grades through which the organ has passed, we should have to look to very ancient ancestral forms, long since become extinct.

We should be extremely cautious in concluding that an organ could not have been formed by transitional gradations of some kind. Numerous cases could be given among the lower animals of the same organ performing at the same time wholly distinct functions; thus in the larva of the dragon-fly and in the fish Cobites the alimentary canal respires, digests, and excretes. In the Hydra, the animal may be turned inside out, and the exterior surface will then digest and the stomach respire. In such cases natural selection might specialise, if any advantage were thus gained, the whole or part of an organ, which had previously performed two functions, for one function alone, and thus by insensible steps greatly change its nature. Many plants are known which regularly produce at the same time differently constructed flowers; and if such plants were to produce one kind alone, a great change would be effected with comparative suddenness in the character of the species. It is, however, probable that the two sorts of flowers borne by the same plant were originally differentiated by finely graduated steps, which may still be followed in some few cases.

Again, two distinct organs, or the same organ under two very different forms, may simultaneously perform in the same individual the same function, and this is an extremely important means of transition: to give one instance, — there are fish with gills or branchiæ that breathe the air dissolved in the water, at the same time that they breathe free air in their swim-bladders, this latter organ being divided by highly vascular partitions and having a ductus pneumaticus for the supply of air. To give another instance from the vegetable kingdom: plants climb by three distinct means, by spirally twining, by clasping a support with their sensitive tendrils, and by the emission of aërial rootlets; these three means are usually found in distinct groups, but some few species exhibit two of the means, or even all three, combined in the same individual. In all such cases one of the two organs might readily be modified and perfected so as to perform all the work, being aided during the progress of modification by the other organ; and then this other organ might be modified for some other and quite distinct purpose, or be wholly obliterated.

The illustration of the swim-bladder in fishes is a good one,

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 because it shows us clearly the highly important fact that an organ originally constructed for one purpose, namely flotation, may be converted into one for a widely different purpose, namely respiration. The swim-bladder has, also, been worked in as an accessory to the auditory organs of certain fishes. All physiologists admit that the swim-bladder is homologous, or "ideally similar" in position and structure with the lungs of the higher vertebrate animals: hence there is no reason to doubt that the swim- bladder has actually been converted into lungs, or an organ used exclusively for respiration.

According to this view it may be inferred that all vertebrate animals with true lungs are descended by ordinary generation from an ancient and unknown prototype which was furnished with a floating apparatus or swim-bladder. We can thus, as I infer from Professor Owen's interesting description of these parts, understand the strange fact that every particle of food and drink which we swallow has to pass over the orifice of the trachea, with some risk of falling into the lungs, notwithstanding the beautiful contrivance by which the glottis is closed. In the higher Vertebrata the branchiæ have wholly disappeared — but in the embryo the slits on the sides of the neck and the loop-like course of the arteries still mark their former position. But it is conceivable that the now utterly lost branchiæ might have been gradually worked in by natural selection for some distinct purpose: for instance, Landois has shown that the wings of insects are developed from the trachea; it is therefore highly probable that in this great class organs which once served for respiration have been actually converted into organs for flight.

In considering transitions of organs, it is so important to bear in mind the probability of conversion from one function to another, that I will give another instance. Pedunculated cirripedes have two minute folds of skin, called by me the ovigerous frena, which serve, through the means of a sticky secretion, to retain the eggs until they are hatched within the sack. These cirripedes have no branchiæ, the whole surface of the body and of the sack, together with the small frena, serving for respiration. The Balanidæ or sessile cirripedes, on the other hand, have no ovigerous frena, the eggs lying loose at the bottom of the sack, within the well-enclosed shell; but they have, in the same relative position with the frena, large, much-folded membranes, which freely communicate with the circulatory lacunæ of the sack and body, and which have been considered by all naturalists to act as branchiæ. Now I think no one will dispute that the ovigerous frena in the one family are strictly homologous with the branchiæ of the other family; indeed,

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 they graduate into each other. Therefore it need not be doubted that the two little folds of skin, which originally served as ovigerous frena, but which, likewise, very slightly aided in the act of respiration, have been gradually converted by natural selection into branchiæ, simply through an increase in their size and the obliteration of their adhesive glands. If all pedunculated cirripedes had become extinct, and they have suffered far more extinction than have sessile cirripedes, who would ever have imagined that the branchiæ in this latter family had originally existed as organs for preventing the ova from being washed out of the sack?

There is another possible mode of transition, namely, through the acceleration or retardation of the period of reproduction. This has lately been insisted on by Professor Cope and others in the United States. It is now known that some animals are capable of reproduction at a very early age, before they have acquired their perfect characters; and if this power became thoroughly well developed in a species, it seems probable that the adult stage of development would sooner or later be lost; and in this case, especially if the larva differed much from the mature form, the character of the species would be greatly changed and degraded. Again, not a few animals, after arriving at maturity, go on changing in character during nearly their whole lives. With mammals, for instance, the form of the skull is often much altered with age, of which Dr. Murie has given some striking instances with seals. Every one knows how the horns of stags become more and more branched, and the plumes of some birds become more finely developed, as they grow older. Professor Cope states that the teeth of certain lizards change much in shape with advancing years. With crustaceans not only many trivial, but some important parts assume a new character, as recorded by Fritz Müller, after maturity. In all such cases,— and many could be given,— if the age for reproduction were retarded, the character of the species, at least in its adult state, would be modified; nor is it improbable that the previous and earlier stages of development would in some cases be hurried through and finally lost. Whether species have often or ever been modified through this comparatively sudden mode of transition, I can form no opinion; but if this has occurred, it is probable that the differences between the young and the mature, and between the mature and the old, were primordially acquired by graduated steps.

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 Special difficulties of the theory of natural selection.

Although we must be extremely cautious in concluding that any organ could not have been produced by successive, small, transitional gradations, yet undoubtedly serious cases of difficulty occur.

One of the most serious is that of neuter insects, which are often differently constructed from either the males or fertile females; but this case will be treated of in the next chapter. The electric organs of fishes offer another case of special difficulty; for it is impossible to conceive by what steps these wondrous organs have been produced. But this is not surprising, for we do not even know of what use they are. In the gymnotus and torpedo they no doubt serve as powerful means of defence, and perhaps for securing prey; yet in the ray, as observed by Matteucci, an analogous organ in the tail manifests but little electricity, even when the animal is greatly irritated; so little that it can hardly be of any use for the above purposes. Moreover, in the ray, besides the organ just referred to, there is, as Dr. R. M’Donnell has shown, another organ near the head, not known to be electrical, but which appears to be the real homologue of the electric battery in the torpedo. It is generally admitted that there exists between these organs and ordinary muscle a close analogy, in intimate structure, in the distribution of the nerves, and in the manner in which they are acted on by various reagents. It should, also, be especially observed that muscular contraction is accompanied by an electrical discharge; and, as Dr. Radcliffe insists, "in the electrical apparatus of the torpedo during rest, there would seem to be a charge in every respect like that which is met with in muscle and nerve during the rest, and the discharge of the torpedo, instead of being peculiar, may be only another form of the discharge which attends upon the action of muscle and motor nerve." Beyond this we cannot at present go in the way of explanation; but as we know so little about the uses of these organs, and as we know nothing about the habits and structure of the progenitors of the existing electric fishes, it would be extremely bold to maintain that no serviceable transitions are possible by which these organs might have been gradually developed.

These organs appear at first to offer another and far more serious difficulty; for they occur in about a dozen kinds of fish, of which several are widely remote in their affinities. When the same organ is found in several members of the same class, especially if in members having very different habits of life, we may generally attribute its presence to inheritance from a common ancestor; and

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