CHAPTER I 
WHAT ARK “ SPECIES,” AND WHAT IS MEANT BY 
THEIR “ORIGIN” 
Definition of species—Special creation—The early Transmutationists— 
Scientific opinion before Darwin—The problem before Darwin— 
The change of opinion effected by Darwin—The Darwinian theory 
—Proposed mode of treatment of the subject. 
The title of Mr. Darwin’s great work is— On the Origin of 
Species by means of Natural Selection and the Preservation of 
Favoured Places in the Struggle for Life. In order to ap¬ 
preciate fully the aim and object of this work, and the 
change which it has effected not only in natural history but 
in many other sciences, it is necessary to form a clear con¬ 
ception of the meaning of the term “ species,” to know what 
was the general belief regarding them at the time when Mr. 
Darwin’s book first appeared, and to understand what he 
meant, and what was generally meant, by discovering their 
“ origin.” It is for want of this preliminary knowledge that 
the majority of educated persons who are not naturalists are 
so ready to accept the innumerable objections, criticisms, and 
difficulties of its opponents as proofs that the Darwinian 
theory is unsound, while it also renders them unable to ap¬ 
preciate, or even to comprehend, the vast change which that 
theory has effected in the whole mass of thought and opinion 
on the great question of evolution. 
The term “ species ” was thus defined by the celebrated 
botanist De Candolle : “ A species is a collection of all the 
individuals which resemble each other more than they 
resemble anything else, which can by mutual fecundation 
e * b 
