July. 1928 



EVOLUTION 



Pace Thirteen 



THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. By Charles 

 Darwin, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 



Nearly seventy years after its first pub- 

 lication The Origin of Species still bears 

 reviewing, for in no sense is it just a book 

 of the past. Sir Arthur Keith has written 

 such a splendid introduction to this re- 

 print of the sixth ^ Darwin's last) edition 

 and has so well stated its past influence 

 and present standing, that I choose merely 

 to quote. 



'"Its preparation occupied, from first to 

 last, a period of forty years . . . The book 

 came into being during a period wlieu 

 Europe was in a state of intense Intel 

 lectual activity, and the effect it produced 

 was immediate and profound. The gen- 

 eration which felt its first shock is dying 

 or dead. . . . Having served its day and 

 generation is it now dead? Or does it 

 possess, within itself, the seeds of eternal 

 youth and is it thus destined to become 

 one of the world's perpetual possessions? 

 The latter. I am convinced, is its destiny. 

 On the foundations laid by Darwin in this 

 book his successors have erected a huge 

 superstructure which will be infinitely ex- 

 tended and modified as time goes on. Yet 

 I feel certain that as long as men and 

 women desire to know something of the 

 world into which they have been born, 

 they will return, generation after genera- 

 tion, to drink the waters of evolutionary 

 truth at the fountain-head. . . . 



"It was much more than a mere dem- 

 onstration of the action of natural selec- 

 tion, it was the first complete demonstra- 

 tion that the law of evolution holds true 

 for every form of living thing. It was this 

 book which first convinced the world of 

 thoughtful men and women that the law 

 of evolution is true. . . . Nor has it fin- 

 ished its appointed mission. No book has 

 yet appeared that can replace it; The 

 Origin of Species is still the book which 

 contains the most complete demonstration 

 that the law of evolution is true. . . . 



'".Suppose, for a moment that an om- 

 niscient biologist, greatly daring, were to 

 re-edit this classic — would he find much 

 that needed alteration? Scarcely a single 

 fact would have to be withdrawn; so ac- 

 curate was Darwin in making his own ob- 

 servations and so careful was he in the 

 selection of his authorities, that the mod- 

 ern reader may accept all his statements 

 of fact without question. But what of his 

 "mode" or method of evolution? The ma- 

 chinery involved — is it out of date? My 

 deliberate opinion is that the machinery 

 of evolution described in this book is not 

 out of date and never wil be. . . . 



'"Far be it from me to say that The 

 Origin of Species is an easy book to 

 read. . . . What is the reason of this 

 difficulty? It is not the style; this is simple 

 and clear: it is not the terms used; 

 Darwin never employs a technical word 

 when a plain one is possible; it is not 

 due to abstract thinking: Darwin clings 

 always to the tangible or visible. The real 

 explanation is its condensalion ; so much 

 is packed into every sentence and every 



paragraph that the reader's mind becomes 

 satiated unless he proceeds slowly and 

 keeps his understanding busy. . . . Few 

 men have taken out of this book all that 

 is in it." A. S. B. 



•THE DOG.MA OF EVOLUTION" by L. 

 T. More, Princeton University Press, 



Professor More is Dean of the Gradu- 

 ate School of Cincinnati, and a physici.sl 

 of standing. It might seem that such an 

 author would not belong among the ob- 

 scurantists; but his general spirit, places 

 him with O'Toole and Price. He grudg- 

 ingly accepts a general belief in evolution, 

 but he states that "evolution of man from 

 the lower animals ... is purely a matter 

 of guess." He also attacks the validity ol 

 the method and scientific spirit of Darwin 

 and other evolutionists and biologists 

 I Lamarck excepted). 



Dr. More seems completely ignorant 

 of any advances in the fields of biology 

 and geology during the present centUI^^ 

 Particularly astounding is his complete 

 innocence in regard to genetics, his 

 calling the inoffensive unicellular amoe- 

 ba ""an aggregate of cells," his discovery 

 that the first word in the scientific name 

 of an organism represents the order, his 

 ignorance as to the source of food ol 

 plants, and his ignorance (or misrepre- 

 sentation) of the evidence from fossils. 



Darwin and Huxley, the two outstand 

 ing examples of scientific integrity, he ac- 

 cuses by implication of intellectual dis- 

 honesty. This would come with better grace 

 if Dr. More did not himself misleail by 

 mangled quotations from (among others) 

 Darwin and Huxley. 



Quotations illustrating Dr. More's inade- 

 quacies could be multiplied to almost an\ 

 extent. '"And it is quite safe to say that 

 today in spite of an immensely increased 

 collection of fossils, the positive evidence 

 of geology, considering the vastness ami 

 intricacy of the problem of evolution, is 

 as incomplete as it was in the time of 

 Darwin and Huxley." It is quhe safr 

 to say that this statement, if it means any- 

 thing at all (observe the weasel words). 

 is directly contrary to fact. "In the pop- 

 ular mind 'the missing link' has become 

 identified with the hope of finding the 

 bones of some wretched, filthy being whicl» 

 could not be called a monkey and which 

 no one would be willing to call a man. 

 It is, perhaps, an odd fact that the an- 

 cestors of animals are presented to us by 

 evolutionists as other animals well fitlei^ 

 to thrive in their environment and adapt- 

 ed to enjoy life: only in the case of man. 

 do we get the picture of inefficiency, half 

 man, half monkey, which is indecent and 

 degraded." Without further comment this 

 passage is sufficient evidence of his emo- 

 tional bias, loose reasoning and lack of 

 acquaintance with his subject. 



Dean More is a special pleader, trying 

 to prove a faith rather than uncover the 

 truth, assuming to write with competency 

 in a field ill which his equipment is scanty 

 and antiquated. 



HORACE EL.MER WOOD. II. 



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