2 STcTVIBIONTICISM AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



"The Survival of the Fittest" from these earUer observations 

 and debates. To Darwin we are indebted for a lasting 

 demonstration of the method of scientific procedure, and 

 for the first extensive attempt to analyze the factors involved 

 in organic evolution. To Darwin, also, is due the credit 

 for the first comprehensive and acceptable attempt to 

 explain the manner of the origin of species. 



The extensive investigations in all departments of biology, 

 the critical analyses and the illuminating discussions which 

 have followed in the wake of Darwin's dissertations, have 

 served to clarify our conceptions and to crystalUze the 

 problems involved in organic evolution. It has become 

 apparent that evolution is an exceedingly complex process, 

 dependent upon a great number of factors. There appear 

 to be three major features of organic evolution controlled 

 by three cardinal principles. The concensus of opinion of 

 biologists today credits Darwin with having estabhshed one 

 of these principles. The other two principles remain to be 

 estabhshed. Besides these three cardinal principles, there 

 apparently are a great number of factors influencing the 

 operations of the major principles. These factors are the 

 various influences that have been long recognized as the 

 modifiers of protoplasmic reactions. 



What then are the three major features of organic evolu- 

 tion? A clear and concise statement of these features is 

 not found in the hterature, so it becomes necessary to 

 attempt to formulate it here. The conception of organic 

 evolution embodies, first of all, a conception of the origin of 

 new forms. This conception is embodied in the term 

 ''origin of species." This, however, is not the sum total of 

 organic evolution. It is well known that along with the 

 ever increasing number of kinds of plants and animals, 

 many that were abundant in earher geologic times have since 

 disappeared; other forms, apparently, are disappearing 

 today. The kaleidoscopic character of life upon the earth 



