FOB DARWIN 367 



FOE DAEWm^ 



By Peofessoe T. H. MORGAN 



COLOMBIA UNIVEESITY 



WE have come together to-day to consider Darwin's influence on 

 zoology. It is a hazardous task to pretend to estimate the 

 influence of any event on the course of history so long as we can not 

 know what the outcome had been otherwise. But to this at least we 

 can testify, that it is the general belief of zoologists to-day that Dar- 

 win's influence in bringing about the acceptance of the theory of evo- 

 lution marks a turning point in the history of their science, and I 

 shall attempt to justify this opinion by pointing out the condition of 

 zoology before Darwin and its subsequent course of development after 

 1859. 



To the zoologist Darwin was above all else a zoologist. It is true 

 he interested himself greatly in geology, but he does not stand as a 

 leader of that science; he carried out many experiments with plants 

 and wrote some important botanical books, and here the zoologist will 

 yield second place to his brother, the botanist. Darwin wrote on the 

 "Descent of Man," he studied the expression of the emotions and 

 carried out physiological work along several lines, yet I should not 

 rank him preeminently an anthropologist, a psychologist or a physi- 

 ologist any more than a paleontologist or a botanist. 



In the mind of the general public Darwinism stands to-day for 

 evolution. The establishment of the theory of evolution is generally 

 accepted as Darwin's chief contribution to human thought, and while 

 Darwin did not originate this idea that forms the framework of our 

 modern thinking, yet by general accord its acceptance is attributable, 

 and justly so, to Darwin. 



To the zoologist Darwinism means more especially evolution ac- 

 counted for by the theory of natural selection, yet also many other 

 things, to which I shall refer in the proper place. 



But I shall attempt this afternoon, before all else, to convince you 

 that the loyalty that every man of science feels towards Darwin is 

 something greater than any special theory. I shall call it the spirit of 

 Darwinism, the point of view, the method, the procedure, of Darwin. 



In order that we may form some idea of Darwin's influence on 

 zoology, let us examine the condition of that science prior to 1859 to 



^ A lecture on " Darwin's Influence on Zoology," delivered at Columbia 

 University, February 26, 1909. 



