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CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
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Image
Species, was waged for years the keenest phase of the contest between the followers of science and the adherents of tradition. More than one generation of naturalists have drawn the inspiration of their best work from their enthusiasm for Darwinism. From Darwin's books evolutionary ideas have permeated into all streams of thought, until natural selection, and the struggle for existence are discerned in operation in all the manifestations of life. The theory of the evolution of living beings by
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
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Image
modification is as follows: the environment affects the habits of the animal, and the habits or functions affect the organs, and thus in the course of generations modifications of any extent are produced. Charles Darwin was early acquainted with the works of Buffon, Dr. Darwin and Lamarck, and thus his mind was ready as soon as his interest in living beings was excited, to consider their relation to the doctrine of evolution. At the same time it is evident that Darwin had more respect for the
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
expounded his own theory of organic evolution in the Origin of Species, he referred to the erroneous views and grounds of opinion of Lamarck. But whatever the young naturalist thought of Lamarck's system, his remarks on the Tucutuco afford only one of the many evidences that his interest in the question of modification versus constancy in organic structure was thoroughly aroused during his years of travel. His celebrated chapter on the Galapagos Islands shows us that the probability of mutability in
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
inherited, and are variable; hence they are liable to be improved and specialized by natural selection. Another great objection to the acceptance of the theory of evolution is the absence of intermediate links among fossil forms, but Darwin shows that the geological record is necessarily very imperfect, and the intermediate links, which do exist among fossil forms, [page] 1
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
present movement, that of circumnutation, and that each particular motion could thus be produced by natural selection acting on variations of circumnutation. Different Forms of Flowers is a contribution to the subject of adaptations for cross-fertilization in plants. In his last work Darwin returned to a geological subject which has no direct connection with the evolution of organic beings, but is a study of one of the most minute and obscure among geological agencies. [page] 2
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
Thus the great naturalist's contribution to the general theory of organic evolution ends with the Animals and Plants under Domestication, and we return to the study of the arguments and conclusions which have played so important a part in the history of modern thought. It cannot be maintained that those arguments are always formulated with perfect logical consistency. Examined closely, the conception of natural selection comes to this: An organism usually possesses the same structure as its
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| 17% |
A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
; and training is in great measure the application of stimuli to act upon function in the belief that function will modify structure. It is not intended to suggest here that Darwin denied the effect of increased or diminished function; but although he confesses that a complete theory of evolution would include a knowledge of the cause of every variation, he does not devote much attention to the analysis of those causes which he mentions. In considering the process by which Madeira beetles have
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
have a curious anomaly. In other classes of phenomena, and in the transmutation of species, we can point to processes actually going on in the present condition of things as similar to the processes which must have caused the changes of which we find records in former periods of the earth's evolution. Marine fossils of former epochs are now found on hill-tops, and beaches are actually being raised by gradual elevation at the present day above the level of the sea. The phenomena of the glacial
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CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
modification is as follows: the environment affects the habits of the animal, and the habits or functions affect the organs, and thus in the course of generations modifications of any extent are produced. Charles Darwin was early acquainted with the works of Buffon, Dr. Darwin and Lamarck, and thus his mind was ready as soon as his interest in living beings was excited, to consider their relation to the doctrine of evolution. At the same time it is evident that Darwin had more respect for the
|
| 17% |
CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
his own theory of organic evolution in the Origin of Species, he referred to the erroneous views and grounds of opinion of Lamarck. But whatever the young naturalist thought of Lamarck's system, his remarks on the Tucutuco afford only one of the many evidences that his interest in the question of modification versus constancy in organic structure was thoroughly aroused during his years of travel. His celebrated chapter on the Galapagos Islands shows us that the probability of mutability in
|
| 17% |
CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
inherited, and are variable; hence they are liable to be improved and specialized by natural selection. Another great objection to the acceptance of the theory of evolution is the absence of intermediate links among fossil forms, but Darwin shows that the geological record is necessarily very imperfect, and the intermediate links, which do exist among fossil forms, [page] 1
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CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
present movement, that of circumnutation, and that each particular motion could thus be produced by natural selection acting on variations of circumnutation. Different Forms of Flowers is a contribution to the subject of adaptations for cross-fertilization in plants. In his last work Darwin returned to a geological subject which has no direct connection with the evolution of organic beings, but is a study of one of the most minute and obscure among geological agencies. [page] 2
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| 17% |
CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
Thus the great naturalist's contribution to the general theory of organic evolution ends with the Animals and Plants under Domestication, and we return to the study of the arguments and conclusions which have played so important a part in the history of modern thought. It cannot be maintained that those arguments are always formulated with perfect logical consistency. Examined closely, the conception of natural selection comes to this:-An organism usually possesses the same structure as its
|
| 17% |
CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
selection; and training is in great measure the application of stimuli to act upon function in the belief that function will modify structure. It is not intended to suggest here that Darwin denied the effect of increased or diminished function; but although he confesses that a complete theory of evolution would include a knowledge of the cause of every variation, he does not devote much attention to the analysis of those causes which he mentions. In considering the process by which Madeira beetles have
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| 17% |
CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
have a curious anomaly. In other classes of phenomena, and in the transmutation of species, we can point to processes actually going on in the present condition of things as similar to the processes which must have caused the changes of which we find records in former periods of the earth's evolution. Marine fossils of former epochs are now found on hill-tops, and beaches are actually being raised by gradual elevation at the present day above the level of the sea. The phenomena of the glacial
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A76
Book:
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas. 1886. Charles Darwin, naturalist. The Round Table series. Edinburgh: William Brown.
Text
Image
the evolution of living beings through descent with modification, he was not satisfied with believing in the truth of the theory, and supporting it by the facts of embryology, geographical distribution, geological succession, and the analogy of domestic productions. What he required was a cause. Darwin had his own peculiar view of the nature of a cause. He sought some one universal principle which would explain all the details; at least he wanted to have some idea of how the divergence at
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CUL-DAR134.3
Printed:
1886
'Charles Darwin' [Edinburgh, Brown (Round Table Series no 5)]: 32pp
Text
Image
the evolution of living beings through descent with modification, he was not satisfied with believing in the truth of the theory, and supporting it by the facts of embryology, geographical distribution, geological succession, and the analogy of domestic productions. What he required was a cause. Darwin had his own peculiar view of the nature of a cause. He sought some one universal principle which would explain all the details; at least he wanted to have some idea of how the divergence at
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once met with any sympathetic agreement. It is probable that some did then believe in evolution, but they were either silent or expressed themselves so ambiguously, that it was not easy to understand their meaning. Now things are wholly changed, and almost every naturalist admits the great principle of evolution ( Origin, sixth edition, p. 424). At present the sale of the book in this country approaches forty thousand copies. Its sale in America has been very large; and numerous translations
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the survival of the fittest was a truth which readily Presented itself to any one considering the subject, and that to Darwin was due the credit of having first brought it forward and demonstrated its truth, and asserted that the destruction of the least fit was recognised thousands of years ago. But, in regard to the descent of man, it fastens specially upon the author's theory of mental and moral evolution, and declares that he has utterly failed. The Saturday Review, however, admitted the
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brought to light in the region of mental science. 1 These truths are specified as the influence of natural selection in the formation of instinct, in the Origin of Species; the evolution of mind and of morals, in the Descent of Man, considered by the late Professor Clifford as containing the simplest and clearest and most profound philosophy that was ever written on the subject; and the evolution of expression in the book described in this chapter. Thus, says Mr. Romanes, in respect both of
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