CHAPTER XV. 



MISCELLANEA. REVIVAL OF GEOLOGICAL WORK. THE 

 VIVISECTION QUESTION. HONOURS. 



In 1874 a second edition of his Coral Reefs was pub- 

 lished, which need not specially concern us. It was not 

 until some time afterwards that the criticisms of my father's 

 theory appeared, which have attracted a good deal of atten- 

 tion. 



The following interesting account of the subject is taken 

 from Professor's Judd's " Critical Introduction " to Messrs. 

 Ward, Lock and Co's. edition of Coral Reefs and Volcanic 

 Islands, &c* 



" The first serious note of dissent to the generally ac- 

 cepted theory was heard in 1863, when a distinguished Ger- 

 man naturalist, Dr. Karl Semper, declared that his study of 

 the Pelew Islands showed that uninterrupted subsidence 

 could not have been going on in that region. Dr. Semper's 

 objections were very carefully considered by Mr. Darwin, 

 and a reply to them appeared in the second and revised edi- 

 tion of his Coral Reefs, which was published in 1874. 

 With characteristic frankness and freedom from prejudices, 

 Darwin admitted that the facts brought forward by Dr. 

 Semper proved that in certain specified cases, subsidence 

 could not have played the chief part in originating the pe- 

 culiar forms of the coral islands. But while making this 

 admission, he firmly maintained that exceptional cases, like 

 those described in the Pelew Islands, were not sufficient to 

 invalidate the theory of subsidence as applied to the widely 

 spread atolls, encircling reefs, and barrier-reefs of the Pa- 

 cific and Indian Oceans. It is worthy of note that to the 

 end of his life Darwin maintained a friendly correspond- 

 ence with Semper concerning the points on which they 

 were at issue. 



* The Minerva Library of Famous Books, 1890, edited by G. T. Bettany. 



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