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as we say — but if so, it must have been so attenuated as to be invisible 

 to eyes as sharp as Huxley's and the other famous naturalists of that 

 time. Huxley says that within the ranks of the biologists he met with 

 but one who had a word to say for evolution. Outside these ranks the 

 only person known to him "whose knowledge and capacity compelled 

 respect " and who advocated evolution was Herbert Spencer. " Many 

 and prolonged were the battles they fought " on this topic, but Huxley 

 maintained his agnostic position. He states : 



I took my stand upon two grounds; firstly that up to that time the 

 evidence in favor of transmutation was wholly insufficient; and secondly that 

 no suggestion respecting the causes of the transmutation assumed which had 

 been made was in any way adequate to explain the phenomena. Looking back 

 at the state of knowledge at that time I really do not see that any other 

 conclusion was justified. 



This frank statement of Huxley not only gives us an insight into 

 the position of one of the most progressive zoologists of that time, but 

 what is of more importance it implies also why the " Origin of Species " 

 convinced him of the doctrine of evolution. 



We have now sufficiently traced the possible influences of the times 

 on Darwin. Before we proceed to study the influence of Darwin on 

 his time, let us for a moment pause to consider what influence Darwin's 

 own surroundings had in shaping his views. His voyage in the Beagle 

 had brought him in contact with the question of geographical distri- 

 bution. He read Malthus in 1838 and this gave him his first idea of 

 the survival of the fittest ; and, as his son and biographer states, this 

 date marks " the turning point in the formation of his theory," so that 

 by 1844 he formulated "a surprisingly complete presentation of the 

 argument afterwards familiar to us in the ' Origin of Species.' " His 

 extensive study of variation under domestication furnished him with 

 the experimental evidence that went so far towards making his study 

 of variation of far-reaching and profound importance. Indeed, in this 

 one essential respect, Darwin was far ahead of all of his contemporaries, 

 and, if you will pardon the anachronism, far ahead of his successors. 

 It is only in recent years that zoologists and botanists have begun once 

 more to work the rich mine of materials at their very doors. The paper 

 of Wallace on " Natural Selection " in 1858, the reception to the 

 "Origin of Species" in 1859, the storm of disapproval it met on the 

 one hand, the staunch and able friends it made on the other, need only 

 be recalled in passing. 



We come now to the influence that Darwin's work has had on modern 

 zoology. That influence is due not alone to the " Origin of Species " 

 that gave to the world an abstract only of his views, but equally to his 

 other works, especially, I think, the " Variation of Animals and Plants 

 under Domestication," and the " Descent of Man." After Darwin and 

 largely as an outgrowth of the wide interest his views aroused in all 



