Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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A336 Book: Gray, Asa. 1888. Darwiniana: Essays and reviews pertaining to Darwinism. New York: D. Appleton. Text Image PDF

Professor Gray at, 205. Effect, as result of complex causes, 62-86. Elephant, possible rapidity of increase, 38; Falconer on, 193-196. Embryology, 118. Equilibrium of natural forces, 41, 42. Evolution and theology, 252-265. Evolutionary hypotheses should be theistic, 176, 199, 279, 381, 389, 390. Evolutionary teleology , article on, 359-390. Extinction of species, not by cataclysms, 41. Eye, formation of, 59, 60; illustrating design, 79-84. Falconer, on the affinity of the mammoth with the

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A873 Book contribution: Geikie, A. 1888. The life and letters of Charles Darwin. Littell's Living Age 176, 2271 (7 January): 3-10. Text Image

science, and not of science only, but of philosophy. The principle of evolution, so early broached and so long discredited, has now at last been proclaimed and accepted as the guiding idea in the investigation of nature. One of the most marvellous aspects of Darwin's work was the way in which he seemed always to throw a new light upon every department of inquiry into which the course of his researches led hkn to look. The specialists who, in their own narrow domains, had been toiling for years

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A873 Book contribution: Geikie, A. 1888. The life and letters of Charles Darwin. Littell's Living Age 176, 2271 (7 January): 3-10. Text Image

history of the development of his views on evolution, and the growth and appearance of the successive volumes which he gave to the world. For the first four years his geological tastes continued in the ascendant. During that interval there appeared three remarkable works, his volume on Coral Islands, that on Volcanic Islands, and his Geological Observations on South America. Of these treatises that on coral reefs excited the wonder and admiration of geologists for the simplicity and grandeur of

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

CHAPTER XIII THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION What we may expect The number of known species of extinct animals Causes of the imperfection of the geological record Geological evidences of evolution Shells Crocodiles The rhinoceros tribe The pedigree of the horse tribe Development of deer's horns Brain development Local relations of fossil and living animals Cause of extinction of large animals Indications of general progress in plants and animals The progressive development of plants

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

, if established, strike at the very root of the arguments of the first three of the writers above referred to. Mr. Herbert Spencer's Factors of Organic Evolution. Mr. Spencer, while fully recognising the importance and wide range of the principle of natural selection, thinks that sufficient weight has not been given to the effects of use and disuse as a factor in evolution, or to the direct action of the environment in determining or modifying organic structures. As examples of the former class

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

PREFACE THE present work treats the problem of the Origin of Species on the same general lines as were adopted by Darwin; but from the standpoint reached after nearly thirty years of discussion, with an abundance of new facts and the advocacy of many new or old theories. While not attempting to deal, even in outline, with the vast subject of evolution in general, an endeavour has been made to give such an account of the theory of Natural Selection as may enable any intelligent reader to obtain

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

, perhaps independently, from fishes. Concluding Remarks. The brief review we have now taken of the more suggestive facts presented by the geological succession of organic forms, is sufficient to show that most, if not all, of the supposed difficulties which it presents in the way of evolution, are due either to imperfections in the geological record itself, or to our still very incomplete knowledge of what is really recorded in the earth's crust. We learn, however, that just as discovery progresses

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

theology were affected by the doctrine of evolution. Further, I wish to prove that there is no essential difference between his Agnosticism and what has always been taught as Atheism. Finally, I mean to give my own notions on evolution and theism. In doing so, I shall be obliged to consider some points raised by anti-materialists, especially by Dr. A. R. Wallace in his recent volume in Darwinism. SOME OBJECTIONS. Let me first, however, answer certain objections. It is contended by those who would

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

conditions. This remarkable proof of development in the organ of the mental faculties, forms a fitting climax to the evidence already adduced of the progressive evolution of the general structure of the body, as illustrated by the bony skeleton. We now pass on to another class of facts equally suggestive of evolution. The Local Relations of Fossil and Living Animals. If all existing animals have been produced from ancestral forms mostly extinct under the law of variation and natural selection, we

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

the earliest geological times, will probably be many hundred times greater than those now existing of which we have any knowledge; and hence the enormous gaps and chasms in the geological record of extinct forms is not to be wondered at. Yet, notwithstanding these chasms in our knowledge, if evolution is true, there ought to have been, on the whole, progression in all the chief types of life. The higher and more specialised forms should have come into existence later than the lower and more

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

with the theory of evolution, but as dependent on those fundamental laws and causes which furnish the very materials for evolution to work with. They will also be relieved from the crushing mental burthen imposed upon those who maintaining that we, in common with the [page] 47

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

hemisphere No proof of glaciation in the tropics Lower temperature not needed to explain the facts Concluding remarks 338-374 CHAPTER XIII THE GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION What we may expect The number of known species of extinct animals Causes of the imperfection of the geological record Geological evidences of evolution Shells Crocodiles The rhinoceros tribe The pedigree of the horse tribe Development of deer's horns Brain development Local relations of fossil and living animals Cause of

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

forgotten, however, that Darwinism would have been impossible if geology had not prepared its way. Natural Selection wants plenty of elbow-room; Evolution requires immeasurable time. But this could not be obtained until geology had made a laughing-stock of Biblical chronology. The record of the rocks reveals a chronology, not of six thousands, but of millions of years; and during a vast portion of that time life has existed, slowly ascending to higher stages, and mounting from the monad to man. It was

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A551 Pamphlet: Foote, G. W. 1889. Darwin on God. London: Progressive publishing company. Text Image PDF

proposition of Evolution. This proposition is that the whole world, living and not living, is the result of the mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the powers possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed. 9 Theologians in search of a life-buoy in the scientific storm have grasped at this chimerical support, although the wiser heads amongst them may doubt whether Professor Huxley is serious in tendering it. Surely if eyes were not made

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

through which animals have passed, it will naturally be expected that we should find important evidence of evolution. We should hope to learn the steps by which some isolated forms have been connected with their nearest allies, and in many cases to have the gaps filled up which now separate genus from genus, or species from species. In some cases these expectations are fulfilled, but in many other cases we seek in vain for evidence of the kind we desire; and this absence of evidence with such

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

. Now evidence of evolution of these varied kinds is what we do find, and almost every fresh discovery adds to their number and cogency. In order, therefore, to show that the testimony given by geology is entirely in favour of the theory of descent with modification, some of the more striking of the facts will now be given. Geological Evidences of Evolution. In an article in Nature (vol. xiv. p. 275), Professor Judd calls attention to some recent discoveries in the Hungarian plains, of fossil

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

reason for the extinction has yet been given. Besides the characters I have mentioned, there are many others in the skeleton, skull, teeth, and brain of the forty or more intermediate species, which show that the transition from the Eocene Eohippus to the modern Equus has taken place in the order indicated 1 (see Fig. 33). Well may Professor Huxley say that this is demonstrative evidence of evolution; the doctrine resting upon exactly as secure a foundation as did the Copernican theory of the

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

they were unable to adapt themselves to new conditions. And he goes on to show how the whole narrow path of the persistent Suilline type, throughout the entire series of the American tertiaries, is strewed with the remains of such ambitious offshoots, many of them attaining the size of a rhinoceros; while the typical pig, with an obstinacy never lost, has held on in spite of catastrophes and evolution, and still lives in America to-day. Indications of General Progression in Plants and Animals. One

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

The shaded vertical bands exhibit the proportions of the fossil forms actually discovered, while the outline extensions are intended to show what we may fairly presume to have been the approximate periods of origin, and progressive increase of the number of species, of the chief divisions of the vegetable kingdom. These seem to accord fairly well with their respective grades of development, and thus offer no obstacle to the acceptance of the belief in their progressive evolution. Geological

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A1015 Book: Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co. Text

important with those of Darwin. The following extract will serve to show the high position claimed by this school as original discoverers, and as having made important additions to the theory of evolution: Wallace and Darwin have propounded as the cause of modification in descent their law of natural selection. This law has been epitomised by Spencer as the 'survival of the fittest.' This neat expression no doubt covers the case, but it leaves the origin of the fittest entirely untouched. Darwin