Nov. 1, 1S6S. 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



211 



WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



HE answers to this 

 question have been 

 numerous and con- 

 tradictory, but the 

 two which have 

 gained most favour 

 with the opponents 

 of Mr. Darwin, are 

 first, that Darwin- 

 ism is a mere revival of the 

 doctrines of Lamarck, and of 

 the "Vestiges of Creation;" 

 and second, that it is " a form 

 of modern scientific infidelity." 

 To the first objection, it may 

 be replied that though several 

 development theories besides 

 those mentioned have pre- 

 ceded Mr. Darwin's, yet 

 none have been brought for- 

 ward fortified by so many un- 

 doubted facts and such skilful 

 reasoning. In answer to the 

 theological objection, it need 

 only be said that it would be easy to show that 

 Darwinism by no means affects the doctrine of a 

 special Providence, and that many of the facts on 

 which the theory is based are quoted by the 

 natural theologian in his own favour. But when any 

 discussion between science and religion arises, the 

 arguments used seldom carry much weight to the 

 other side, as bearing the impress of special plead- 

 ing. Our object not being to defend Darwinism, 

 but to gain some idea of its leading principles, it 

 will not be necessary to notice further any general 

 objections which may have been urged against it. 



Darwinism is one of those philosophies which 

 teach that all the various forms of organic life 

 around us have not originated by special creation, 

 or, in other words, by the direct miraculous inter- 

 position of the First Cause ; but by the gradual 

 action of secondary causes on previously existing 

 organisms, and it seeks to explain what these 

 No. 47. 



causes are, and their modes of operation. Every 

 object which is sufficiently material to fall under 

 our observation at all, is subject to the action of 

 innumerable secondary laws, the investigation of 

 which is fully within our province ; and the growth 

 and variation of animals is no exception to the rule. 

 But we cannot reach the ultimate causes of any- 

 thing; and as science progresses, she continually 

 finds that the effects which she had in her ignorance 

 supposed to be produced by ultimate causes, are 

 the result of ascertainable laws, the origin of which 

 appears to have receded to the same distance as 

 before. 



It is admitted by all that animals and plants are 

 subject to variation to an unknown extent ; and the 

 only question at issue between Mr. Darwin and his 

 opponents, is the limit or non-limit of variation. 



The number of species now existing in the world 

 is enormous ; for example, the number of species of 

 beetles, alone at present recorded, cannot be much 

 fewer than 100,000 ; and in all probabdity not one 

 quarter of the whole number at present exist in 

 our collections. Larger animals do not present so 

 vast a number of species, nor are they so prolific or 

 so abundant in individuals. But Malthus and 

 others have satisfactorily shown, by arithmetical 

 calculations, that at the lowest rate of reproduction, 

 supposing that no obstacle to increase existed, 

 there would in a few years be no standing-room in 

 the world for a ' the descendants of a single pair of 

 any one species. A vast amount of extermination 

 of species as well as of individuals has been con- 

 tinually in progress, from the earliest period of 

 which we have any geological knowledge to the 

 present day. It is true that the extermination of 

 those species whose disappearance has fallen under 

 human observation, has been effected mainly by 

 human agency; but this cause could not have 

 operated, of course, in the earlier geological periods. 



Variation generally receives a great impetus from 

 domesticity. Hence it is that in our domestic 

 animals we frequently see changes taking place in a 

 few years so great that they would require an 



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