EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



of electricity implies the investigation 

 from a new standpoint of the various 

 substances used as its conductors. The 

 study of this particular agency, there- 

 fore, involves the study of a great num- 

 ber of related things, and thus directly 

 tends to an enlargement of mental grasp. 

 It has, if we mistake not, another most 

 interesting side. All natural sciences, by 

 the analogies they supply, throw more 

 or less light upon the operations of mind 

 and the movements of social forces. 

 Electricity, we believe, will furnish the 

 most instructive ones of all, but we can 

 not to-day more than throw out the 

 hint. Physical science, let us say in con- 

 clusion, is bringing noble gifts to the feet 

 of mankind ; it is for mankind to see that 

 they use these nobly and wisely. 



TITE DOCTRINE OF NATURAL SELEC- 

 TION. 



There has been a very industrious 

 outcry in certain quarters lately, to the 

 effect that the doctrine of Natural Se- 

 lection was losing ground ; and certain 

 reactionaries have been allowing them- 

 selves to entertain great hopes that all 

 might yet be well with their antiquated 

 ideas. As a very apt and powerful an- 

 swer to this contention came Mr. Wal- 

 lace's book on Darwinism, in which, in 

 the line of animal creation, he claimed 

 more for the action of natural selec- 

 tion than even Darwin had done. Fol- 

 lowing close on it came the interesting 

 treatise of Mr. E. B. Poulton, F. E. S., 

 on the Colors of Animals. The last 

 paragraph of Mr. Poulton's preface is 

 worth quoting entire : 



"Above all, I should wish to ac- 

 knowledge, although I can never fully 

 express the depth of my indebtedness 

 to the principles which first made Biol- 

 ogy a science, the principles enunciated 

 by Charles Darwin. It is common 

 enough nowadays to hear of new hy- 

 potheses, which are believed by their 

 inventors to explain the fact of evolu- 

 tion. These hypotheses are as destruc- 

 tive of one another as they are supposed 



to be of natural selection, which re- 

 mains as the one solid foundation on 

 which evolution rests. I have wished 

 to express this conviction, because my 

 name has been used as part of the sup- 

 port for an opposite opinion, by an 

 anonymous writer in the Edinburgh 

 Review. In an article in which unfair- 

 ness is as conspicuous as the prejudice 

 to which it is due, I am classed as one 

 of those 'industrious young observers' 

 who ' are accumulating facts telling 

 with more or less force against pure 

 Darwinism.' On the strength of this 

 and other almost equally strange evi- 

 dence, the reviewer triumphantly ex- 

 claims, ' Darwin, the thanes fly from 

 thee ! ' In view of this public mention of 

 my name, I may, perhaps, be excused 

 for making the personal statement that 

 any scientific work which I have had 

 the opportunity of doing has been in- 

 spired by one firm purpose the desire 

 to support, in however small a degree, 

 and to illustrate by new examples, those 

 great principles which we owe to the 

 life and writings of Charles Darwin, 

 and especially the pre-eminent principle 

 of natural selection." 



Mr. Poulton may express himself, 

 perhaps, a little over-enthusiastically ; 

 but surely there is much significance in 

 the protest which he raises against be- 

 ing quoted on the anti-Darwinian side. 

 One substantial piece of manufactured 

 evidence not only vanishes entirely, but 

 has its place taken by an energetic as- 

 sertion of the contrary position. Evi- 

 dences, indeed, that the doctrine of evo- 

 lution has become almost a fixed prin- 

 ciple with scientific workers are to be 

 found on every hand. "When men of 

 any scientific eminence whatever, like 

 the late Prof. Sedgwick, in England, 

 or Sir William Dawson, of Canada, re- 

 fuse it their adhesion, their position be- 

 comes one of such singularity as pow- 

 erfully to prove the rule as to the direc- 

 tion the scientific world at large has 

 taken. One of the most conservative 

 publications of the day in England 



