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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

had numerous questions to ask about the geographical range of plants, and in 1857 he wrote explaining in some detail the views at which he had arrived as to the causes of evolution. My friend Rowland H. Wedgwood, a nephew of Darwin, has given me the following interesting letter to his father, which was written, he believes, probably before 1855. By kind permission, it is here published for the first time. The letter is of great [page] 5

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

dioxide of the decomposition of these and of floating pumice. Hence, the depths of the ocean afford no indications of a lost continental area, but are covered by a peculiar deposit unknown among the rocks of continents which were formed in comparatively shallow water round and not far from coasts, or in land-locked or nearly land-locked seas like the Mediterranean. On July 20th, 1856, he wrote to Asa Gray, giving some account of his views, and stating his belief in evolution, but only hinting at

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

species could arise by natural selection from distinct lines of ancestry, but it is extremely improbable that the same species could arise independently in more than one centre among the individuals of a changing species; for in this case, too, it is most unlikely that the same conditions of competition would co-exist with the same favourable variations in the areas inhabited by independent colonies of the same species. Under other theories of evolution direct action of environment, supposed

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

CHAPTER VIII. DARWIN AND WALLACE (1858). THE history of Darwin's friendship with Alfred Russel Wallace is of quite unique interest, being brought about by the fact that both naturalists saw in evolution and its causes the great questions of the immediate future, and by the agreement in the interpretations which they independently offered. Wallace was collecting and observing in the Malay Archipelago, and wrote to Darwin as the one man most likely to sympathise with and understand his views and

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

Wallace. The evolution of the giraffe's long neck is explained by Wallace on the principle of natural selection, which is contrasted with Lamarck's original explanation of the same character. This contrast, which has been so often drawn, was therefore originally contained in the first public statement of natural selection. As has been indicated above, Darwin suggested a cause of variation in the direct effect of changed external conditions on the reproductive system. In comparing the two essays it

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

CHAPTER XII. THE GROWTH OF WALLACE'S CONVICTIONS ON EVOLUTION AND DISCOVERY OF NATURAL SELECTION BORNEO 1855 TERNATE 1858. WE have already seen in the earlier part of this volume, the gradual development of the theory of Natural Selection in the mind of Darwin, and the long succession of experiments and observations which he undertook before he could bring himself to publish anything upon the subject, as well as the conditions which forced him to a hurried publication in the end. It is of the

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

considered and answered beforehand, while the wealth of new facts by which it was supported compelled a respectful hearing for the theory itself. Wallace, like Darwin, was convinced of evolution before he discovered any principle which supplied a motive cause for the process. This conviction is expressed very clearly in his interesting essay already alluded to On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New Species (Ann. and Mag., Nat. Hist., 1855, p. 184; reprinted without alteration in his

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

not have been otherwise, but are almost as necessary deductions from it, as are the elliptic orbits of the planets from the law of gravitation. This important essay is dated by Wallace from Sarawak, Borneo, February, 1855. The conclusions remind us of the words Darwin wrote in his note-book in 1837. Led to comprehend true affinities. My theory would give zest to recent and Fossil comparative Anatomy. By his theory Darwin here means evolution and not natural selection, which was not discovered by

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

CHAPTER XIV. THE PREPARATION OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1858-59). ALMOST immediately after the Linnean Society meeting, and evidently earlier than September, the time mentioned in his Autobiography, Darwin began to prepare a longer and more complete account of his work on evolution and natural selection. This account was at first intended for the Linnean Society, but it was soon found to be too long, and he then decided to publish it as an independent volume. In thus preparing the manuscript

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

to the Origin. Darwin was prevented by illness from receiving the medal in person and from being present at the dinner. The tenth edition of the Principles was published in 1867 and 1868, and in it Lyell clearly stated his belief in evolution. Sir Joseph Hooker, in his presidential address to the British Association at Norwich in 1868, eloquently spoke of the new foundation with which Lyell had under-pinned the edifice he had raised, and had thus rendered it not only more secure, but more

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

teleology, which. . .is actually based upon the fundamental proposition of evolution. . .that the whole world. . .is the result of the mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the forces possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed. Therefore, a sufficient intelligence could, from a knowledge of the properties of the molecules of that vapour, have predicted, say, the state of the fauna of Britain in 1869, with as much H [page] 11

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

interpreted as an unqualified testimony to the permanent truth of natural selection. But this interpretation is expressly excluded: Whether the particular shape which the doctrine of evolution, as applied to the organic world, took in Darwin's hands, would prove to be final or not, was, to me, a matter of indifference. In my earliest criticisms of the 'Origin' I ventured to point that its logical foundation was insecure . . .; and that insecurity remains. [page] 13

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

them to adduce a solitary fact, of which it can be said, this is irreconcilable with the Darwinian theory. Taking this argument as a whole, it seems to me to amount to the words of Mercutio quoted at the beginning of this chapter. In the following year (1888) Huxley wrote the Obituary Notice of Darwin for the Proceedings of the Royal Society: it is reprinted in Darwiniana (pp. 253 et seq.). In this admirable essay the author recognises that Darwin evidently accepted evolution before he could

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

CHAPTER XX. THE DIFFICULTY WITH WHICH THE ORIGIN WAS UNDERSTOOD (continued) VIEWS ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. THE history of opinion on evolution and natural selection, in the years which followed the publication of the Origin, can be traced in the titles of the papers and subjects of discussion at successive meetings of the British Association. In the Presidential Address delivered by Professor Newton to the Biological Section of the Manchester meeting in 1887, there is a most interesting

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

: In accordance with the principle of evolution it was impossible to account for climbing plants having been developed in so many widely different groups unless all kinds of plants possess some slight power of movement of an analogous kind. This I proved to be the case; and I was further led to a rather wide generalisation, viz. that the great and important classes of movements, excited by light, the attraction of gravity, c., are all modified forms of the fundamental movement of circumnutation

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

Charles, 11 Darwin, Robert Waring, Father of Charles, 10; Profession and Character, 10; his Dislike to the Beagle Expedition, 21 22; Death of, 41 Darwin Medal of the Royal Society awarded to Huxley, The, 140 Darwinism not Evolution, Huxley's Speeches, 139 141 Deposits, Oceanic, 55 Descent of Man, The, 186 Development, 166, 171 Dixey, Dr. F. A., Paper on Mimicry, 214 Domestication, Variation by, of Animals and Plants, 115, 161, et seq.; of Animals, 75 Down, Darwin's Home at, 35 Drosera and Other

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A2966 Book: McLennan, John Ferguson. 1896. [Letter to Darwin] in Studies in ancient history; the second series, comprising an inquiry into the origin of exogamy. Edited by Eleanor Anne McLennan and Arthur Phut. London and New York. Text

indulgence would be as passion prompted and opportunity offered. We may see in the behaviour of other animals at that stage how various the behaviour may have been. The object, I take it, is to ascertain what from that stage were the normal stages in the evolution of modes of marriage, or marriage systems. In the brute stage we may see analogies to marriage systems, e.g. the gorilla may be said to keep a harem and to be polygynous, but it would be a misuse of terms to speak of him as married to his

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

passage in the work, maintain that he was convinced of evolution. His great caution in dealing with so tremendous a problem explains why the second edition does not reflect the state of his mind at the time of its publication. He tells us ( Autobiography ) that in the preparation of this second edition he took much pains, and we may feel confident that much of this care was given to the decision as to how much he should reveal and how much withhold of the thoughts which were occupying his mind

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

causes of evolution which were suggested to him by the facts of nature, and that some general idea of natural selection presented itself to him at times, although without any of the force and importance it assumed in his mind at a later time. In October, 1838, he read Malthus on Population, and as he says: Being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under

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A334 Book: Poulton, Edward Bagnall. 1896. Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection. London: Cassell & Co. Text Image

seed by birds the woodpecker, with its feet and tail, beak and tongue, to climb the tree and secure insects. To talk of climate or Lamarckian habit producing such adaptations to other organic beings is futile. This difficulty I believe I have surmounted. Having then stated that the reasons which induced him to accept evolution were general facts in the affinities, embryology, rudimentary organs, geological history, and geographical distribution of organic beings, he proceeds to give a brief account