62 DARWINISM TO-DAY. 



as the first step toward making biology, in part, at least, an exact 

 science. But there is no question at all that the statistical and 

 quantitative study of variation, and the use of authoritatively 

 deduced mathematical expressions (and the graphic representation 

 of these by plotted frequency curves, polygons, etc.), have immensely 

 advanced our understanding of variation conditions, and given us 

 defmiteness and concreteness in a fundamental field of evolution 

 study, where before were a mass of uncoordinated data and a haze 

 of loose generalising. 



9 Bateson, Wm., "Materials for the Study of Variation," 1894. 



10 See Kellogg and Bell, "Studies of Variation in Insects," Proc. 

 Wash. Acad. Sci., Vol. VI, pp. 203-332, 1904, in which are discussed 



(pp. 257-273) variation conditions existing in the lady- 



trividvarlations, bird beetle ' Hippodamia convergent. The variations 

 in the number and character of the elytral pattern 

 (small black spots on a brown ground) noted in a thousand speci- 

 mens examined, were such that eighty-four "aberrations," or pat- 

 tern-variates, could be distinguished and described, and yet, an. 

 intensity of scrutiny demanding the use of a lens was necessary to 

 distinguish properly these varying types. Such a scrutiny, needless- 

 to say, will never be given these beetles by bird or lizard, the active 

 agents representing natural selection, as far as pattern is to be 

 tested. Nevertheless, these pattern variations, if not so completely 

 connected by gradatory steps, would be exactly the characters on 

 which several Hippodamia species would be based, for they range all 

 the way from no spots to eighteen spots, although twelve is the 

 species character of convergens. 



1 Romanes discusses this subject of the indifference, or triviality, 

 of many specific characters at some length in chap, vii of his "Dar- 

 win and After Darwin," II, "Post-Darwinian Questions," "Heredity 

 and Utility." 1895. 



12 Conn, H. W., "Method of Evolution," pp. 78-83, 1900. 

 3 Nageli, Carl, "Mechanisch-physiologische Theorie der Abstam- 

 mungslehre," 1884. Nageli, an eminent botanist, formulated many 

 Nageli's seven y ears a S the following famous seven objections ta 

 objections to spe- the natural selection theory of species-forming (pp, 

 ties-forming by 289-290): 



selection. j ch hebe f o i gen( j e s i e ben Gesichtspunkte hervor, 



welche uns die Abstammung durch Zuchtwahl unannehmbar machen : 



"i. Beziiglich der allgemeinen Bedeutung der Selectionstheorie 

 ist die unbestimmte Wirkung unbestimmter Ursachen und die dem 

 Zufall allzusehr iiberlassene Entscheidung durch die natiirliche 

 Zuchtwahl unserem naturwissenschaftlichen Bewusstsein weniger 

 zusagend. Ferner setzt sich die Selecticnstheorie, welche ihrem 



