Claypole.l J--*-^ [April 1, 



may occur, iudiscriminately in any direction as lines radiate trom a centre, 

 both Prof. Gray and Dr. Carpenter assume or maintain that it talces place 

 only along certain definite lines. Yet further, in their view the changes 

 thus produced in an organism are uniformly of a beneficial kind. 



That I may not be subject to the charge of misrepresentation I quote 

 the following extracts from the writers referred to. 



In a paper entitled " On an Abyssal Type of the genus OrhitoUtes ; a 

 Study in the Theory of Descent," published in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, for 1883. Dr. Carpenter remarks, after detailing the variation 

 exhibited by the forms of OrbitoUtes, "that no exercise of natural selec- 

 tion could produce the successive changes presented in the evolutionary 

 history of the group." "And," he adds, " as all these earlier forms still 

 flourish under conditions which, so far as can be ascertained, are precisely 

 the same, there is no ground to believe that anyone of them is better fitted 

 to survive than another." " To me therefore it appears that the doctrine of 

 natural selection can give no account of either the origin or the perpetua- 

 tion of those several types of foraminiferal structure which form the 

 ascending series that culminates in OrbitoUtes complanatus." " On the 

 other hand there seems traceable through the series a plan so obvious and 

 definite as to exclude the notion of "casual or aimless variation." 

 "Everything in their history shows a well-marked progressive tendency 

 along a definite line towards a highly specialized type of structure in the 

 calcareous fabric." 



The significance of these remarks is unmistakable. The writer is evi- 

 dently maintaining that alongside of the capacity for variation there acts 

 some power guiding the ensuing variation along a definite course to a 

 definite end. 



One expression in the above passage calls for a passing remark. In 

 saying that the doctrine of natural selection can give no account of the 

 origin of these types Dr. Carpenter appears to have overlooked the fact 

 that no evolutionist attributes the origin of varietal or specific forms to 

 this source. Tlieir origin must be sought in variation. Natural selection 

 is only the means of preserving and perpetuating or of destroying and 

 eliminating them. This remark would perhaps be impertinent were it 

 not that other expressions in the same essay also apparently ignore the 

 part played by variation in every accepted theory of evolution. For 

 example, we read, "Those who find in natural selection or the survival of 

 the fittest an all-sufficient explanation of the origin of species seem to 

 have forgotten that before natural selection can operate there must be a 

 range of varietal forms to select from." "No exercise of natural selec- 

 tion could produce the successive changes presented in the evolutionary 

 history of the typical OrhitoUtes from Cornospira to SpiroloeuUna thence 

 to PeneropUs, to OrbicuUna, to the simple and then to the complex forms 

 of OrbitoUtes." 



There is in this passage a singular omission of all reference to the fact 



