CHAPTER I 



WHAT ARE "SPECIES," AND WHAT IS MEANT BY 

 THEIR "origin" 



Definition of species — Special creation — The early Transmutationists — 

 Scientific opinion before Darwin — The problem before Darwin — 

 Tlie change of opinion effected by Darwin — The Darwinian theory 

 — Proposed mode of treatment of the subject. 



The title of Mr. Darwin's great work is — On the Origin of 

 Species hy means of Natural Selection and the Preservation of 

 Favoured Faces in the Struggle for Life. In order to ap- 

 preciate fully the aim and object of this work, and the 

 change which it has effected not only in natiu'al history but 

 in many other sciences, it is necessary to form a clear con- 

 ception of the meaning of the term " species," to know what 

 was the general belief regarding them at the time when Mr. 

 Dar-\vin's book first appeared, and to understand what he 

 meant, and what Avas generally meant, by discovering their 

 " origin." It is for want of this preliminary knowledge that 

 the majority of educated persons Avho are not naturalists arc 

 so ready to accept the innumerable objections, criticisms, and 

 difficulties of its opponents as proofs that the Darwinian 

 theory is unsound, while it also renders them unable to ap- 

 preciate, or even to comprehend, the vast change which that 

 theory has effected in the whole mass of thought and opinion 

 on the great question of evolution. 



The term " species " was thus defined by the celebrated 

 botanist De Candolle : " A species is a collection of all the 

 individuals Avhich resemble each other more than they 

 resemble anything else, Avhich can l:)y mutual fecundation 



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