BIOLOGY. 309 



TRANSMUTATION" OF SPECIES. 



Prof. Huxley, in an address before the British Association, in 

 1866, makes the following statement in regard to the question of 

 the transmutation of si^ecies, so ably defended by Mr. Darwin, 

 and which now claims as its supporters, as one of "Natui-e's agen- 

 cies, at least, some of the most eminent zoologists, botanists,''and 

 palo3ontologists of Europe and this country. 



Much obsei-vation must be made, and much evidence accumu- 

 lated, before we can see our way to a theory of ti-ansmutation of 

 species. The only valid, though cardinal, objection to such a 

 theory, is the want of evidence that a change of the kind inferred 

 really takes place, and that so little proof of it is forthcoming, in 

 spite of the attention which has, for many years, been anxiously 

 directed to the subject. The nearly allied species tantalize us by 

 a certain flexibility of type, and *by their near approach to one 

 another; but they seem rigidly to abstain from the boundary 

 lines ; and the variations that take place seem to have no special 

 reference to an approximation to those lines, but rather to a cer- 

 tain i^ower of accommodation to external circumstances, neces- 

 sary for the preservation of the species. We tind considerable 

 varieties in the human species. We do not yet clearly know how 

 to connect even these with one another, or with a common origin. 

 Some of these 'are more, some less, allied to the monkey ; °but 

 between the lowest of the human and the highest of the monkey, 

 there is a gap, the width of which will be differently estimated by 

 different persons, but so wide that there has never yet been any 

 douljl: to which side any specimen should be referred. Now, if 

 the one has been transmuted from the other, how comes it that 

 the series has been broken, and the connecting links ceased to 

 exist ? The conditions are still fixvorable to the existence of the 

 man and to the existence of the monkey ; why are they not still 

 favorable to existence of the species that have connected the one 

 with the other? We may wonder, not only that the traces of 

 species in past time are not forthcoming, but that the species are 

 not now living. Moreover, we do not know that any conceiv- 

 able conditions, operating through any number of years, will 

 bring the gorilla or chimpanzee one wliit nearer to man, would 

 give them a foot moi-e capable of bearing the body erect, a brain 

 more capable of conceiving ideas, or a larynx more capable of 

 communicating them. He did not think that much direct assist- 

 ance has been given, by the theory of natural selection based 

 upon the struggle for existence, ably propounded and ably de- 

 fended as it has been ; it has dispersed some of the fallacies and 

 false objections which beset the idea of transmutation of species, 

 and has so placed the question in a fiiirer position for discussion ; 

 but it reminds us forcibly of some of the real difliculties and 

 objections. Though artificial selection may do much to modify 

 species, it is rather by producing varieties, than by drawing away 

 very far from the original stock. To the former there seems no 

 limit; but the latter is stopped by the increasing unproductive- 

 ness and unhealthiness of the individuals, by the susceptibility to 



