CHAPTER IX. 



CRITICISMS OF THE THEORY OF NATURAL 

 SELECTION. 



I WILL now proceed to consider the various objec- 

 tions and difficulties which have hitherto been advanced 

 against the theory of natural selection. 



Very early in the day Owen hurled the weight of 

 his authority against the new theory, and this with a 

 strength of onslaught which was only equalled by its 

 want of judgment. Indeed, it is painfully apparent 

 that he failed to apprehend the fundamental principles 

 of the Darwinian theory. For he says : 



Natural Selection is an explanation of the process [of trans- 

 mutation] of the same kind and value as that which has beeri 

 proffered of the mystery of " secretion." For example, a par- 

 ticular mass of matter in a living animal takes certain elements 

 out of the blood, and rejects them as " bile." Attributes were 

 given to the liver which can only be predicated of the whole 

 animal ; the " appetency " of the liver, it was said, was for the 

 elements of bile, and " biliosity," or the "hepatic sensation," 

 guided the gland to their secretion. Such figurative language, 

 I need not say, explains absolutely nothing of the nature of 

 bilification 1 . 



Assuredly, it was needless for Owen to say that 

 figurative language of this kind explains nothing ; but 



1 Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 794. 



