276 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



Natural Co-ordination as evinced in Or- 

 ganic Evolution. A Paper read by 

 William Fkaser, M. D., before the Brit- 

 ish Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at its Montreal Meeting, Septem- 

 ber 1, 1884. New Glasgow, Nova Sco- 

 tia : George W. Chisholm. 



If it would be too much to say that Dr. 

 Fraser, in this philosophical essay, has 

 solved the supreme question of the nature 

 of that governing power by which an evolv- 

 ing universe works out its highest results, it 

 is not too much to say that he has made 

 a reasonable and a valuable contribution 

 toward such a solution. We can not here 

 give his closely knit argument, but must be 

 content with indicating the ground taken, 

 lie begins by remarking that " matter and 

 force constitute the present scientific basis 

 of the natural universe ; but as unco-ordi- 

 nated entities they might remain forever 

 inoperative." This idea is so illustrated and 

 enforced as to bring out the necessity of af- 

 firming a presiding directive and co-ordi- 

 nating principle as a part of the order and 

 constitution of Nature, and without which 

 development is a wholly inexplicable pro- 

 cess. Dr. Eraser's statement of the case of 

 evolution as against special creation, and 

 in the variety of its proofs, is thus admira- 

 bly summarized: 



The persistency with which Bncceeding links in 

 the same org.inic chain approximate to a common 

 mean type, along with certain prevailing senti- 

 ments and supposed teleological implications, has 

 Influenced many naturalists to accept the doctrine 

 of special creation as a satisfactory explanation of 

 the origin of species; to believe that each distinct 

 kind was immediately introduced with its present 

 congeries of characters complete and immutable, 

 adapting it to a prepared station, and having the 

 principle of heredity so strongly implanted as to 

 prevent its member* from ever deviating beyond 

 the limits of acknowledged specific divergence. 



From studying the question under other aspects, 

 8ome observers have been induced to adopt an op- 

 posite \iow, and to conclude that all actual diversi- 

 ties were potentially inherent in matter and energy 

 at their original creation and disposition, and have 

 been spontaneously evolved through natural causes, 

 without any supernatural interference. 



Having learned tho apparent potency of natural 

 means and methods in producing all past physical 

 changes, they feel constrained to recognize these as 

 fully adequate to sustain tho whole sum of terres- 

 trial activity, including tho processes and products 

 of organization ; deeming it more credible that tho 

 total system of development, in common with all 

 other material objects and events, should form an 

 essential and interdependent part of tho more com- 

 prehensive scheme of Nature, than that each distinct 



species should have its source in a miraculous act of 

 creatioa 



Observing, under varying artificial conditions, 

 the occasional production of several acknowledged 

 TAEiETtES from a common stock, and the perpetua- 

 tion of such only as can provisionally conform with 

 the conventional requirements of their situations, 

 they infer that spkcies originated and have been 

 transmitted in a similar way, but carried further 

 and established more flrmlj', either in consequence 

 of more powerful impulses or of greater time and 

 opportunities afforded. 



They also find that all the species of the same 

 genus, inhabiting adjacent and intercommunicable 

 areas, have closer structural relationships than those 

 of more remote and mutually isolated regions, and 

 that any diflferences which exist in the former case 

 are superficial, as if the later divergences had rare- 

 ly and but sUghtly affected their fundamental char- 

 acters. 



Fossils also are generally found more nearly al- 

 lied to the fauna and flora of their own particular 

 territory than to those of distant provinces ; and in 

 the later deposits more so than in those of earlier 

 strata. 



Paleontological arrangements likewise indicate 

 a gradual advance from generalized to specialized 

 forms, from the simple earliest structures up to the 

 relatively complex types of the present age. 



Embryological development also shows a gen- 

 eral progress from the indefinite to the definite; all 

 organic germs at their origin being scarcely distin- 

 guishable from one another; the earlier foetal stages 

 of many different classes of animals being almost 

 parallel ; and in the higher orders, their later phases 

 being attended by a gradually decreasing number 

 of companions, till man, the highest vertebrate, at 

 length alone acquires distinctively human features. 

 Besides, underneath certain diversUies of surface, 

 which constitute specific morphological distinctions, 

 there is often a fundamental unity : the arms of a 

 man. the flippers of a whale, the fore-legs of a horse, 

 and the wings of a bird being constructed on essen- 

 tially the same general pattern, though differing 

 greatly iu special details, as if a common ancestral 

 organ had become differently modified in each par- 

 ticular case, in subordination to, and in conformity 

 v\ith, correlated conditions. 



Rudimentary structures often show the potency 

 of heredity in preserving parts long after they have 

 ceased to be service.-ible; and occasionally they rep- 

 resent tho transition to some more complete and 

 permanent advantageous iicquirement. 



In general, the more invariable and radical or- 

 ganic structures are diffused among much larger 

 aggregates than are less permanent and less impor- 

 tant ones. 



Tho spinal column, which pertains to the whole 

 Tortebrato sub-kingdom, holds tolerably constant 

 specific characteristics within the same class, where- 

 a.s the dermal appendages not only manifest much 

 diversity in different species, but often display con- 

 siderable difference even in members of the same 

 variety. 



All these complex and diversified relations are 

 considered indicative of community of origin, with 

 subsequent adaptive modifications. 



Certainly geographical distribution, geological 



