: 
‘ 
, 
Mw 
: 
: 
: 
: 
26 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES Th 
there is assuredly abundant room for him, wh ' 
assuming the humbler, though perhaps as vaefi 
office of an interpreter between the “ Origin ri 
Species” and the public, contents himself with 
endeavouring to point out the nature of the prob- 
lems which it discusses; to distinguish between 
the ascertained facts ial the cheeratiand views 
which it contains ; and finally, to show the extent’ 
to which the explanation it offers satisfies the re- 
quirements of scientific-_logie. At any rate, it is 
this office which we purpose to undertake in the 
following pages. 
It may be safely assumed that our readers have 
a general conception of the nature of the objects 
to which the word “species” is applied; but it 
has, perhaps, occurred to a few, even to those who 
are naturalists ex professo, to reflect, that, as com- 
monly employed, the term has a double sense and 
denotes two very different orders of relations. 
) When we call a group of animals,.or of plants, a 
species, we may imply thereby, either that_all 
these animals or plants have some common peculi- 
arity of form or structure ; or, we may mean that 
they possess some common functional character. 
That part of biological science which deals with 
form and structure is called Morphology—that 
which concerns itself with function, Physiology— 
so that we may conveniently speak of these two 
senses, or aspects, of “ species "—the one as mor- 
phological, the other as physiological. Regarded 
