19093 Darwin' s Place in Science 



a forest would be moved; here a lake and there a river. But 

 better studies have shown the largeness of Darwin's vision. 

 These critics could not see the landscape for the brush. Or, 

 dropping the allegory, we may see that our knowledge of 

 Organic Evolution has grown by leaps and bounds, but largely 

 along lines laid down or foreseen by Darwin. 



Since Darwin's time, the compound microscope has opened 

 the secrets of histology. We have given meaning to the "physi- 

 cal basis of heredity." We have learned the process by which Cell 

 two germ cells from two different individuals unite to form a structure 



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new individual, and we have followed this process through many a , ni 



i r T TIT i i j function 



complex and unforeseen ramifications. We have settled many 

 difficult questions, and we have raised a thousand more, which 

 may yet in turn be settled, but with the same result. We have 

 found reasons why no two individuals can be alike, why no 

 two germ cells can ever be alike, and we have some hint as to 

 why characters will be latent in one generation to reappear in 

 the next. 



Since Darwin's time, natural selection has been exalted as Natural 

 all-powerful by many writers who went, as Darwinians, far se ^ ct ^ n 

 beyond Darwin himself. In reaction, other authors have denied 

 to selection not merely " Allmacht" or all sufficiency, but any 

 sufficiency or reality at all. It is enough for our discussion to 

 disclaim these extreme views. Selection must find its place in 

 the heredity of any individual or species. We know no other 

 cause for the myriad adaptations of life to its environment. 

 We know no other reason for progressive adaptation. And 

 yet the actual traits of actual species are largely non-adaptive. 



Conklin observes: "On the whole, then, I believe the facts Return 

 which are at present at our disposal justify a return to the to 

 position of Darwin." This he said with reference to a special 

 problem in heredity, but these words apply to many others. 

 'The position of Darwin" is very safe standing ground. What 

 we have learned with better tools and keener insight into minor 

 details has not changed the large problems very much, and this, 

 as Conklin said again, is "but another testimony to the great- 

 ness of that man of men that after exploring for a score of years 



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