318 GENERAL BIOLOGY 



Critique of the Darwinian Theory. Darwin's 

 work, " The Origin of Species," was published in 

 1859, and the entire first edition was sold on the day 

 of issue. This was evidence of the acute public 

 interest in the subject at that time. The publica- 

 tion was merely the spark in the powder magazine, 

 for the idea of organic evolution had been in the air 

 for a century and a half, and had been steadily 

 gaining strength. The following ten or fifteen years 

 were occupied with controversy and heated polemic, 

 for the vital argument was not so much the hypothe- 

 sis of Natural Selection as the theory of Organic 

 Evolution versus the doctrine of Special Creation. 

 As to the conclusion of the issue there could be no 

 doubt, and when, finally, the theory of Evolution 

 was definitely established, that of Natural Selection 

 was accepted along with it, although of course the 

 former did not necessarily involve the latter. 1 



The chief result of Darwin's great generaliza- 

 tion was an extraordinary development of natural 

 science and the extension of the field of biological 

 inquiry in every direction. Darwin had spent his 

 life in the patient accumulation of data on which 

 he based his generalization, and he was not unaware 



1 "History warns us, that it is the customary fate of new truths to 

 begin as heresies and to end as superstitions ; and, as matters now stand, 

 it is hardly rash to anticipate that, in another twenty years, the new 

 generation, educated under the influences of the present day, will be 

 in danger of accepting the main doctrines of the "Origin of Species" 

 with as little reflection, and it may be with as little justification, as so 

 many of our contemporaries, twenty years ago, rejected them." 

 T. H. HUXLEY, " The Coming of Age of the * Origin of Species.' " 1880. 



