84 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



evidence of the assumed transition, the presumption is totally 

 against the hypothesis of transformism. 



Now, as a matter of fact, the geological record rarely offers 

 any evidence of the existence in the past of intermediate 

 species. For those, who have implicit confidence in the time- 

 value of geological "formations," there are indications of a 

 general advance from lower to higher forms, but, even so, 

 there is little to show that this seeming progress is to be 

 interpreted as an increasing divergence from common ancestral 

 types. With but few exceptions, the fossil record fails to show 

 any trace of transitional links. Yet pedigrees made up of 

 diverse genera are poor evidence for filiation or genetic con- 

 tinuity, so long as no intermediate species can be found to 

 bridge the chasm of generic difference. By intermediate spe- 

 cies, we do not mean the fabulous "generalized type." An- 

 nectants of this kind are mere abstractions, which have never 

 existed, and never could have existed. We refer rather to 

 actual fossil types separated from one another by differences 

 not greater than specific ; for "not until we have linked species 

 into lineages," can fossil pedigrees lay claim to serious 

 attention. 



But let us suppose the case for evolution to be ideally favor- 

 able, and assume that in every instance we possessed a perfect 

 gradation of forms between two extremes, such, for example, 

 as occurs in the Ammonite series, even then we would be far 

 from having a true demonstration of the point at issue. Bate- 

 son has called our attention to the danger of confounding 

 sterile and instable hybrids with intergradent species. "Ex- 

 amine," he says, "any two thoroughly distinct species which 

 meet each other in their distribution, as for instance. Lychnis 

 diurna and vespertina do. In areas of overlap are many inter- 

 mediate forms. These used to be taken to be transitional 

 steps, and the specific distinctness of vespertina and diurna 

 was on that account questioned. Once it is known that these 

 supposed intergrades are merely mongrels between the two 

 species the transition from one to the other is practically be- 



