180 NATURAL SCIENCE [September 
successive generations these changes continue until ultimately the 
new conditions become the natural ones. . . . They can show that 
throughout all organic nature there is at work a modifying influence 
of the kind they assign as the causes of specific differences ; an 
influence which, though slow in its action, does in time, if the 
circumstances demand it, produce marked changes.” + 
All, therefore, I ask of my readers is to weigh well the evidence 
that has been again of late years brought forward in favour of 
adaptation in lieu of natural selection as the means by which 
varieties originate; and not to be biassed by, it may be, many 
years of conviction that Darwinism was all-sufficient. It is solely 
a question of evidence, and as the doctrine of evolution ultimately 
broke down men’s faith in Creation by “ Fiats” and the 
Argument of Design, so it is hoped that before this century closes, 
it will be seen that Darwin’s deduction of “ The Origin of Species 
by Means of Natural Selection” was a most unfortunate one, as it 
is quite incapable of verification; while the conclusion of Mr 
Herbert Spencer has been abundantly verified, both by inductive 
evidence and experimental proof. GEORGE HENSLOW. 
1 Essay on The Development Hypothesis,” 1852, 
