[Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. XVIII, No. 11, Part III, pp. 431-451. Author's 



separates published 10 February, 1909.] 



CHARLES DARWIN AND THE MUTATION THEORY.^ 



By Charles F. Cox. 



Professor Hugo de Vries, in his American lectures on "Species and 

 Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation," claims that his work is "in full 

 accord with the principles laid down by Darwin," ^ and boldly asserts that 

 Darwin recognized both "mutation" and individual variation, or " fluctua- 

 tion," ^ as steps towards what Professor Cope aptly called "the origin of 

 the fittest." I think many persons unfamiliar with Darwin's writings must 

 have been much surprised on reading Professor de Vries's statement, for 

 it has been a common belief in the scientific world for many years that the 

 establishment of the mutation theory would be fatal to Darwinism, or would 

 at least take from it its most original and essential features. The perpetua- 

 tion of this impression has been due, very largely, to Mr. Alfred R. Wallace 

 and certain of his followers, who have steadfastly refused to admit the possi- 

 bility of the evolution of species and varieties by any form of saltation and 

 have insisted more uncompromisingly than did Mr. Darwin himself upon 

 the exclusive efficiency of selection exercised upon small, recurring individ- 

 ual fluctuations. In fact, many of Mr. Wallace's views have out-Darwined 

 Darwin and yet Darwin, somewhat unreasonably, has been held responsible 

 for them. Accordingly, Darwin has been charged with a radicahsm which 

 he never professed and champions of a supposed Darwinism have felt called 

 upon to do battle against theories which he never distinctly repudiated or 

 which he might even have accepted if he had known of them. Thus, Pro- 

 fessor E. B. Poulton, in his recently published "Essays on Evolution," 

 attacks with great severity, under the name of "Batesonians," believers in 

 the vaUdity of mutation as a factor in the process of evolution, although, 

 as he admits, "mutation was of course well known to Darwin." * Now, 



1 Presidential address. Read at the annual meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 21 December, 1908. 



2 Preface by the author, p. ix. 



3 Second edition, p. 7. 



■* "Essays on Evolution," 1908, p. xviii. 



431 



