with all essential organs, means of locomotion, its appetite, its
dislikes, its care of itself, its love for its kind, its inherent malice
towards its enemies--all evolved in a brief period from the concentrated
essence of life.

"If, as is believed, the development of the perfect animal from
protoplasm epitomises the series of changes which represent the
successive forms through which its ancestors passed in the process of
evolution" (these are the words of Professor Francis Darwin) what a
graphic, what a luminous demonstration of evolution is here presented!

In a brief previous reference to this mollusc it was stated that the
infants in their separate capsules were in a state of progressive
development from the base to the apex of the cluster, those in the base
being the farther advanced. Investigations lead to a revision of such
statement. No favour seems to be enjoyed by first-born capsules.
Development is equable and orderly, but as in other forms of life the
contents of certain capsules seem to start into being with a more
vigorous initial impulse than others, and these mature the more speedily.
A sturdy infant may be screwing its way out of its cradle, while in a
weakly and degenerate brother alongside the thrills of life may be far
less imperative.

The pictures illustrate isolated scenes in the life-history of the
mollusc, which in a certain sense offers a solution to, the conundrum
stated by job "Who, hath begotten the drops of dew?"


PROTECTIVE COLORATION