THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



denies the distinction of species. Perhaps, his idea 

 is that variation is possible within undefinably wide 

 limits. Fixed species do exist, although, because of 

 complexity of structure and habits, we cannot satis- 

 factorily separate them. Just as we distinguish black 

 from white, although between them lie any number 

 of shades of gray, so there are types of animals suf- 

 ficiently different to prevent variation from one to 

 the other and yet between them are gradations which 

 to our observations shade from one to the other. 



It is unnecessary to discuss further Buffon's rather 

 baffling ideas because we can turn to a contempora- 

 neous statement of evolution without any qualifica- 

 tions. In 1794, Dr. Erasmus Darwin published his 

 Zoonomia in which he explicitly advocates the idea 

 of transmutation of species. His thesis may be given 

 in his own words : "Would it be too bold to imagine 

 that, in the great length of time since the world began 

 to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the com- 

 mencement of the history of mankind — would it be 

 too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals 

 have arisen from one living filameiit^ which the great 

 First Cause endued with animality, with the power 

 of acquiring new parts, attended with new propen- 

 sities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, 

 and associations, and thus possessing the faculty of 

 continuing to improve by its own inherent activity 

 and of delivering down these improvements by gen- 

 eration to its posterity, world without end?" The 



C 144 3 



