WHAT IS PHYSICAL LIFE 



Ball's notions. What Mr. Dyer means is 

 that there are now only two identifiable 

 specimens remaining of the kind among 

 biologists. Had Sir Robert Ball but a 

 moderate acquaintance with biology, he 

 would have known that even in 1892 there 

 was a rapidly spreading conviction among 

 the only kind of men who have a claim 

 to speak authoritatively on the subject, 

 that the Darwinian theory is hopelessly 

 inadequate to explain the course of de- 

 velopment of living forms, for so thor- 

 oughgoing an evolutionist as Professor 

 Karl Pearson, F.R.S., says, " It can 

 explain no more than fringes of evolu- 

 tion," and that every year even these 

 fringes are being materially curtailed. 

 Moreover, that Mr. Ball had as little right 

 to leave his telescope and deliver himself, 

 as above cited, about spontaneous genera- 

 tion, as a biologist would have to tell what 

 he thought about the planet Venus after 

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