156 Kansas Academy of Science. 



of the Malay archipelago, independently of Darwin, and wrote to 

 him about it. To be perfectly fair, both had papers read at the 

 same meeting of the Linnsean Society, in July, 1858, so that un- 

 seemly controversy about priority was averted — a spectacle which 

 sometimes belittles science as well as scientific men. They were 

 both too great and generous to wish to deprive each other of the 

 honors due to each, and the world has honored them both the more. 

 For twenty years Darwin had been accumulating a mass of data. 

 It was in the air, so that Wallace felt it in far-ofp Asia. It was a 

 world thought, not the invention of any one-man ; but the man who 

 gave it complete expression opened up a new era for humanity and 

 made himself immortal. The nineteenth century will be known as 

 the century of unprecedented progress, but not the least of its 

 glories will be the fact that it added to the establishment of the 

 principle of evolution as a great working idea. 



In the volume on "Darwin and Modern Science," containing the 

 addresses given at the anniversary exercises at Cambridge last June 

 ( Sci., Oct. 15, 1909, p. 527), in tone, all recognized the intellectual 

 supremacy of Darwin, although most of the speakers had made some 

 additions of fact or theory to the verification of evolution. Darwin, 

 they said, was the great explorer who charted the way, and while 

 much of detail has been added to the map, the original chart re- 

 mains much the same. The scheme of the evolution of species, 

 through variation and heredity, on the one hand, and the selective 

 influence of environment, on the other, has not greatly changed 

 since the date of the "Origin of Species." The method, degree, 

 and to some extent the causes, of variation have been critically and 

 successfully studied. The meaning and the machinery of heredity 

 have been the subject of most fruitful investigation and experi- 

 ment. Natural selection has been subjected to the most searching 

 analysis, but it still remains the only general cause of the universal 

 phenomenon of adaptation of life to environment. The work of fifty 

 years has but intensified the main features of the sketch, and has 

 constantly added to the work of the master without the obliteration 

 of any essential details. 



Darwin's great doctrine was what he called "natural selection 

 and the survival of the fittest," which accounted for the persistence 

 of animals and plants in the struggle for existence. By the work- 

 ings of these laws the strongest survived and the weaker went to 

 the wall in the battle for life. This crude statement must be 

 greatly modified, however, for there are many qualifying factors 

 entering into its manifestations before it can be considered in its 



