the Act of failing, or declining from a more perfect, or valuable Kind, or Condition, to a less.'Tis a great Dispute among Naturalists, whether or no Animals, Plants, &c. be capable of degenerating into other Species. The Affirmative being urged by many as a strong Objection against the Plant, &c. being contain'd in the Seed; and the Doctrine of Generation, wherein that is supposed.Fortun. Licetus, Lib. IV. de Spont. vivent. ort. expressly contends, that the Forms of Animals degenerate into other more imperfect ones: Thus, says he, the Soul of a Calf, after its Death, degenerates into the Souls of the Worms, Bees, &c. arising out of his Carcass; But the other School-Men laugh at the Notion.Others hold, that in the same Matter there are divers Forms ; and that Degeneration is only the putting off one Form, and calling forth another latent one: But it is impossible, the Form of a Worm, and that of a Calf, should be actually existing together in the same Piece of Matter. See FORM.Others hold, that the Degeneration only obtains in Vegetables, and define it the Change of a Plant of one Kind into that of another viler Kind. Thus, say they, Wheat degenerates into Tares; Oats into Avena, or wild Oats; Ocymum into Serpyllus; Sisymbrium into Mint; Caulis into Rapa, &c.The Plantule, or Stamen of the future Vegetable, they hold to exist in the Seed; so as that to produce such a Plexus, or Organism, a Matter so and so prepar'd is requir'd: And add, that the Matter in the Soil where the Seed is lodged being such as is incapable of producing the said Plexus, it must necessarily change into another of a different Nature from that of the Seed requir'd, tho' in some Respects alike, and approaching thereto: Thus, Tares and Wheat, in many Respects agree; so also Serpyllus and Ocymum, &c. They allow, however, that there is no Degeneration in the Root, but only in the Seed: In as much as the Root already supposes a perfect Organization.But our latest and best Naturalists maintain such a Degeneration, or Transmutation, to be a Chimera: Not but they allow, that a Plant, by being transplanted to an improper Soil, or Sun, may be depraved; so as a Florid Caulis, e. g. may produce only a Brassica Capitata; and a Dutch Rose of an hundred Leaves, another Rose f ar short thereof in Number of Leaves, Colour, Smell, &c. such a Depravation is possible, and frequently happens, but a specific Transformation seems out of the Power of Nature; a new Form ever supposing a new Generation, which again supposes a Corruption of the former Kind. See TRANSFORMATION, and SEED.
