CHAPTER XXXV 

 THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION 



Vocabulary 

 Isolation, separation. 



Contemporary, one who lives at the same time. 

 Divergence, separation of lines of descent. 

 Predecessor, one who comes before. 



Proof of the fact of similarity between the various forms of living 

 things, and of their very evident relationship, still leaves a more 

 difficult question to be answered. How did this descent and 

 modification take place, by what means has nature developed one 

 form from another? 



The idea of evolution of living forms from previous simpler 

 ones had been in existence for centuries, but the first serious 

 attempt to explain the means by which the new forms evolved, 

 was made by Lamarck in 1809. He advanced the view that new 

 species arose by inheriting the results of use or disuse of organs. 

 For example, the giraffe, by constantly reaching for the leaves of 

 trees, developed its neck, and the offspring increasingly inherited 

 the characteristic until a new species was formed. 



The time was not ripe for acceptance of Lamarck's ideas; 

 moreover, his theory was not in accordance with facts and was 

 forgotten for fifty years. 



Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. The date, 1859, marks 

 an epoch in biological thought and should never be forgotten. In 

 that year Charles Darwin, an English scientist, published his 

 " Origin of Species by Natural Selection " and established the 

 theory of evolution on a firm basis. 



This theory is the corner stone of all recent science and the 

 foundation of all modern thought. It is not confined to biology 



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