Various Anti-Darwinian Views 



long, although among those who formulate 

 them are to be found some eminent men of 

 science. 



Delage alleges that selection is powerless to form 

 species, its function is, according to him, limited 

 to the suppression of variations radically bad, 

 and to the maintaining of a species in its normal 

 character. It is thus an inimical factor in evolu- 

 tion, a retarder rather than an accelerator of 

 species-change. It merely acts by preserving 

 the type at the expense of the variants, and so 

 acts as a brake on evolution. 



Korschinsky, while possibly not denying that 

 selection occurs in nature, declares that its 

 influence on evolution is nil, or, if it has any 

 influence, that it is a hindering one. 



Eimer similarly denies any capacity on the 

 part of natural selection to create species. 



Pfeffer urges a very different objection. He 

 says that if such a force as natural selection 

 existed it would transform species much more 

 rapidly than it does ! 



Now, in order that the above objections can 

 carry any weight, one of two sets of conditions 

 must be fulfilled. 



Either all organisms must be perfectly adapted 

 to their environment, and this environment must 

 never change, or there must be inherent in each 

 species a kind of growth-force which impels 

 the species to develop in certain fixed directions, 

 c 33 



