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L tiBRARY : 



I 



EVOLUTION IN GENERAL 



CHAPTER I 



THE PRESENT CRISIS IN EVOLUTIONARY 



THOUGHT 



Three prominent men, a scientist, a publicist, and an orator, 

 have recently made pronouncements on the theory of Evolu- 

 tion. The trio, of course, to whom allusion is made, are 

 Bateson, Wells, and Bryan. As a result of their utter- 

 ances, there has been a general reawakening of interest in 

 the problem to which they drew attention. Again and 

 again, in popular as well as scientific publications, 

 men are raising and answering the question: "Is Darwin- 

 ism dead?" Manifold and various are the answers given, 

 but none of them appears to take the form of an unqualified 

 affirmation or negation. Some reply by drawing a distinction 

 between Darwinism, as a synonym for the theory of evolution 

 in general, and Darwinism, in the sense of the particular form 

 of that theory which had Darwin for its author. Modem 

 research, they assure us, has not affected the former, but has 

 necessitated a revision of ideas with respect to the latter. 

 There are other forms of evolution besides Darwinism, and, 

 as a matter of fact, not Darwin, but Lamarck was the orig- 

 inator of the scientific theory of evolution. Others, though 

 imitating the prudence of the first group in their avoidance of 

 a categorical answer, prefer to reply by means of a distinction 

 based upon their interpretation of the realities of the problem 



rather than upon any mere terminological consideration. 



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