EVOLUTIONAL ZOOLOGY 21 5 



two important evolutionary contributions — "The Vestiges of 

 the Natural History of Creation," published anonymously in 

 1844, and the essay of Herbert Spencer on the "Development 

 Hypothesis" in 1852. The former, the authorship of which 

 was acknowledged many years later by Robert Chambers of 

 Edinburgh, created an extraordinary popular interest, and 

 ran through ten editions in nine years. The book, however, 

 was received with either indifference or ridicule by most of 

 the scientific men of the time on account of its manv errors in 

 matters of biological and geological detail, but in spite of these 

 defects it undoubtedly went far to "harrow the soil for Dar- 

 win's sowing." The great value of the "Vestiges," the sound- 

 ness of its arguments, and the popular influence which it ex- 

 erted especially in England have, as Professor Lovejoy* has 

 pointed out, been grossly neglected by the historians of evolu- 

 tionism and it is certainly not to the credit of biologists both 

 of fifty years ago and to-day, that they have failed so com- 

 pletely in a just recognition of Chambers' service. We owe to 

 Professor Lovejoy the first adequate appreciation not only of 

 the "Vestiges," but also of the actual status of the argument 

 for organic evolution as it existed during the fifteen or twenty 

 years preceding the "Origin of Species." I am therefore in- 

 debted to his very valuable researches in being able to present 

 this important period in its correct historical perspective. 



Summary of the Argument for Organic Evolution Before 



Darwin 



In attempting to account for the origin of species but two 

 views are possible — either they were created as such, or they 

 were evolved one from another through hereditary transmis- 

 sion of differences. As has already been stated, an adequate 

 and reasonable body of evidence for the acceptance of the 



♦Lovejoy, Arthur O., "The Argument for Organic Evolution before 'The Origin 

 of Species,'" Popular Science Monthly, November and December, 1909. 



