EX-PRESIDENT PORTER ON EVOLUTION. 583 



tion of what was before partially learned from their osteology and the 

 little that was known of their embryological features, viz., that there 

 must have been a root-stock out of which, in an unmeasured past, arose 

 both the reptilia and the earliest mammals. But a new fact of even 

 larger interest and carrying us inconceivably further back, taking us 

 indeed, with something like clear light, to the origin of the vertebrates 

 themselves, is presented to us by Mr. W. Baldwin Spencer, of the Uni- 

 versity Museum, Oxford. Mr. Spencer only presents the facts, but 

 their bearing on the philosophy of evolution is apparently inevitable ; 

 and certainly they are inexplicable save by this hypothesis." 



Then follows an account, for which we have not space, of the dis- 

 covery, imbedded in the skull of a vertebrate animal, of an invertebrate 

 eye an atrophied organ, devoid of all function, but pointing to the 

 conclusion, in Dr. Dallinger's words, " that the tunicates and the ver- 

 tebrates arose in one stock of enormous antiquity." The above extract, 

 however, is chiefly significant for the emphasis with which it asserts 

 the dominion that the Darwinian philosophy has acquired over the 

 minds of competent students of science, and the extent to which it is 

 inspiring and directing their labors. In the face of such powerful tes- 

 timony, how petty seems the quibble about "the sagacious tact of most 

 naturalists " having decided that " within the historic period" the lim- 

 its of " well-defined species " have not been changed ! Whatever most 

 naturalists may think on this altogether secondary point, it is abun- 

 dantly evident that they accept the Darwinian theory as a whole, and 

 make it a guiding light in biological research. Any one who wishes 

 to see in what esteem Darwinism is held among men who occupy them- 

 selves with the study of organic nature need only turn to the proceed- 

 ings of learned societies, and he will there see that Darwinism, or, as 

 Dr. Dallinger happily expresses it, " the philosophy of the ' Origin of 

 Species,' " is almost universally accepted as the starting-point of bio- 

 logical speculation. Its general principles will be found to be either 

 tacitly assumed or expressly acknowledged, in nearly every contribu- 

 tion made to those sciences on which it has any bearing. How wide is 

 the range of its application may partly be judged from the following 

 summary, taken from " Nature " of October 23, 1884, of an essay read 

 by Dr. Kirchhoff, of Halle, at the Magdeburg meeting of the Associa- 

 tion of German Naturalists and Physicians, on the subject of " Dar- 

 winism and Racial Evolution " : 



" It was argued that the physical development of peoples was inti- 

 mately dependent on the natural conditions of their respective sur- 

 roundings. The inhabitants of northern lands are noted for a pre- 

 ponderance of the pulmonary functions ; those of hot, moist, tropical 

 regions for a more marked activity of the liver. Thus, the strongest 

 lungs prevail among the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Thibetans, who 

 occupy the three highest plateaus on the surface of the globe. . . . 

 The daily pursuits of a people are constantly evoking special organic 



