DARWINISM IN ENGLAND. 105 



VIII. 



The conclusion of this chapter of Dr. Carpenter's active 

 labour may fitly be followed by a semi-autobiographical 

 summary of his views on " Darwinism in England," drawn 

 up during his second Mediterranean cruise, and published 

 in a little Valetta journal named // Barth* in December, 

 18S1. 



I have been so frequently asked by Continental savans 

 what English naturalists think of Mr. Darwin's views, that it 

 may not be an unprofitable use of a short interval of leisure 

 which my detention in Malta forces upon me, if I attempt 

 briefly to answer the question. 



To do this, I must say something of the state of opinion 

 among British naturalists previous to the appearance of Mr. 

 Darwin's " Origin of Species." I can myself remember the 

 time when the " fixity of species " was the generally accepted 

 doctrine among zoologists and botanists ; when much greater 

 stress was laid upon points of difference than upon points of 

 agreement ; and when far more credit was attached to the 

 multiplication of species by attention to minute differences than 

 to the reduction of their number by such a careful comparison 

 of numerous individuals as proved these differences to be in- 

 constant and gradational. So, again, it was the general creed 

 of the older palaeontologists that each geological period had a 

 fauna and a flora of its own, every, member of which must be 

 specifically distinct from that which preceded and followed it; 

 a complete extinction of all the types of life then existing having 

 taken place at the end of every such period, and an entirely neiv 

 creation having ushered in the next. This school has been 

 represented among Continental naturalists to a recent period 

 by men of such eminence as M. D'Orbigny and Professor 

 Agassiz ; but it has long since died out in Britain. All our 

 most esteemed zoologists and botanists have latterly studied 



* A larcije part of this was afterwards embodied in a paper entitled, 

 "Charles Darwin: his Life and Work," Modern Review^ July, 1SS2. A 

 few verbal changes made in this paper are here introduced. 



