lity derived from the father, or from deficiency of the stimulus of
the nutriment derived from the mother. In either case the effect would be
similar; as a scrophulous race is frequently produced among the poor from
the deficient stimulus of bad diet, or of hunger; and among the rich, by a
deficient irritability from their having been long accustomed to too great
stimulus, as of vinous spirit.

6. From this account of reproduction it appears, that all animals have a
similar origin, viz. from a single living filament; and that the difference
of their forms and qualities has arisen only from the different
irritabilities and sensibilities, or voluntarities, or associabilities, of
this original living filament; and perhaps in some degree from the
different forms of the particles of the fluids, by which it has been at
first stimulated into activity. And that from hence, as Linnaeus has
conjectured in respect to the vegetable world, it is not impossible, but
the great variety of species of animals, which now tenant the earth, may
have had their origin from the mixture of a few natural orders. And that
those animal and vegetable mules, which could continue their species, have
done so, and constitute the numerous families of animals and vegetables
which now exist; and that those mules, which were produced with imperfect
organs of generation, perished without reproduction, according to the
observation of Aristotle; and are the animals, which we now call mules. See
Botanic Garden, Part II. Note on Dianthus.

Such a promiscuous intercourse of animals is said to exist at this day in
New South Wales by Captain Hunter. And that not only amongst the quadrupeds
and birds of different kinds, but even amongst the fish, and, as he
believes, amongst the vegetables. He speaks of an animal between the
opossum and the kangaroo, from the size of a sheep to that of a rat. Many
fish seemed to partake of the shark; some with a shark's head and
shoulders, and the hind part of a shark; others with a shark's head and the
body of a mullet; and some with a shark's head and the flat body of a
sting-ray. Many birds partake of the parrot; some have the head, neck, and
bill of a parrot, with long straight feet and legs; others with legs and
feet of a parrot, with head and neck of a sea gull. Voyage to South Wales
by Captain John Hunter, p. 68.

7. All animals therefore, I contend, have a similar cause of their
organization, originating from a single livi