188 The Question of Organic Evolution. (April, 
photographic and heliometric operations in both hemispheres. 
France distinguished herself by occupying the greatest 
number of difficult island stations in the southern seas. 
Lastly, to England must be assigned whatever credit is due 
to the first discussion of the subject, and the promulgation 
of a programme for the whole scientific world: had this 
programme been but correct, and had other nations only 
accepted the parts assigned to them, England would have 
been as easily first as she was in 1769, and as she may be— 
who knows ?—in 1882. 
IV. THE QUESTION OF ORGANIC EVOLUTIONS 
ae) E, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, are 
fated to be present at one of the most striking 
revolutions which have ever occurred in the inter- 
pretation of the universe. The announcement of the helio- 
centric theory of the heavens, the discovery of the law of 
universal gravitation, the overthrow of the phlogistian 
chemistry, the creation of the science of geology, and the 
modern doétrine of the conservation of force are, indeed, phi- 
losophically, steps of equal value. But probably none of 
them, not even the first mentioned, has given rise to so much 
and so intemperate controversy. Forty years ago, when the 
“Beagle”? was prosecuting her voyage of discovery with 
the young and unknown naturalist Charles Darwin on 
board, zoology and botany were the quietest, the least 
exciting of the sciences. Deemed altogether remote from 
human interests, with scant fame and scanter material 
rewards to confer upon their votaries, they were sneered at 
by poets,t and viewed by statesmen, ecclesiastics, and men 
of business with supreme indifference. Now all is changed; 
over a large portion of the civilised world, a zoological ques- 
tion is debated with an interest passing into acrimony. 
““With the exception of ecclesiastico-political topics, no 
sphere of thought agitates the educated classes of our day 
so profoundly as the doctrine of descent.” ‘‘ Darwinism is 
meat and drink to the daily papers, and to the political and 
theological periodicals.” The terrible truth has dawned 
* The Dodtrine of Descent and Darwinism. By Oscar Scumipt. London: 
H. S. King and Co. 
Evolution and the Origin of Life. By H. CuHariton Bastian, M.D., 
F.R.S., &c. London: Macmillan and Co. 
+ For instance, Ebenezer Elliot, the Corn-law Rhymer. 
