DARWINISM ATTACKED. 29 



thus launched is offered as a substitute for the natural 

 selection theory obviously weakening under the fire of 

 modern scientific criticism. But however effective de 

 Vries's facts are in proving the possibility of the occurrence 

 of other variations than those fortuitous ones occurring in 

 continuous series from mean to opposite extremes which Dar- 

 win recognised as the basis of species-forming, and however 

 effective they are in proving the actual production of three 

 or six or ten species by mutation, and however effective in 

 both these capacities they are as weapons of attack on the 

 dominance of the Darwinian theory of species-making, 

 how really inadequate are they to serve as the basis of a 

 great all-answering theory explaining, in a causo-mechanical 

 way, the facts of descent, or even the primary facts of gen- 

 eral species-forming. And yet the first American book 4 

 (from the pen of one of America's foremost biologists) to 

 discuss the modern phase of unrest and dissatisfaction in 

 evolutionary matters, practically accepts the mutations- 

 theory as a substitute for the selection theory of species- 

 forming. It cannot be, it seems to me, that Professor 

 Morgan is so satisfied w r ith the mutations-theory, that he 

 clutches it up, hardly definitely formed and cooled, from the 

 de Vriesian moulds, but that he is, like many another present- 

 day biologist, so profoundly dissatisfied with the natural 

 selection theory. For my part it seems better to go back 

 to the old and safe Ignoramus 5 standpoint. 



But I have been led to anticipate my conclusions ; let us 

 make another beginning with the real undertaking of this 

 chapter and get to the actual specifications of "Darwinism 

 Attacked." We shall concentrate the attacks and attackers in 

 this and the two following chapters ; then include in the suc- 

 ceeding two the defence and the defenders, and in the next 

 four chapters the various supporting and substitutionary 

 theories offered by the friends and foes of Darwinism. 

 Finally, in the last chapter we shall set out what we can 



