2GG LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [xm. 



to coincide with his own. The other objections which Professor 

 Kolliker enumerates and discusses are the following : l 



&quot; 1. No transitional forms between existing species are known ; and 

 known varieties, whether selected or spontaneous, never go so far as to 

 establish new species.&quot; 



To this Professor Kolliker appears to attach some weight. 

 He makes the suggestion that the short-faced tumbler pigeon 

 may be a pathological product. 



&quot; 2. No transitional forms of animals are met with among the organic 

 remains of earlier epochs.&quot; 



Upon this, Professor Kolliker remarks that the absence of 

 transitional forms in the fossil world, though not necessarily fatal 

 to Darwin s views, weakens his case. 



&quot;3. The struggle for existence does not take place.&quot; 



To this objection, urged by Pelzeln, Kolliker, very justly, 

 attaches no weight. 



&quot; 4. A tendency of organisms to give rise to useful varieties, and a natural 

 selection, do not exist. 



&quot; The varieties which are found arise in consequence of manifold external 

 influences, and it is not obvious why they all, or partially, should be 

 particularly useful. Each animal suffices for its own ends, is perfect of its 

 kind, and needs no further development. Should, however, a variety be 

 useful and even maintain itself, there is no obvious reason why it should 

 change any further. The whole conception of the imperfection of organisms 

 and the necessity of their becoming perfected is plainly the weakest side 

 of Darwin s Theory, and a pis aller (Nothbehelf) because Darwin could 

 think of no other principle by which to explain the metamorphoses which, 

 as I also believe, have occurred.&quot; 



Here again we must venture to dissent completely from Pro 

 fessor Kolliker s conception of Mr. Darwin s hypothesis. It 

 appears to us to be one of the many peculiar merits of that 

 hypothesis that it involves no belief in a necessary and continual 

 progress of organisms. 



Again, Mr. Darwin, if we read him aright, assumes no special 



1 Space will not allow us to give Professor Kolliker s arguments in detail ; 

 our readers will find a full and accurate version of them in the Reader for 

 August 13th and 20th, 1864. 



