554 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Juke 26, 1885. 



On applying the principle of evolution to the formation of a 

 worm, I cannot imagine that it was necessary for a worm to be 

 first hard before it got evolved into its present softness. To illus- 

 trate this, let " Commentator " take the atmosphere at the present 

 time. In construction, it is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen in a 

 fairly constant proportion. 



But was its constitution always so ? 



Geological investigations lead us to think that it was not so. If 

 our globe was at one time in a molten condition — and we have no 

 reason to think the contrary — most of the elements which enter 

 into the constitution of organic forms must have existed as separate 

 atoms. 



So soon, however, as the temperature of the globe was lowered 

 by radiation. Arc, chemical attraction began to assert itself, and, 

 causing some of the elements to combine, hydrogen would unite 

 with oxygen to form water; carbon would unite with oxygen 

 to form'carbonic and carbonous oxides, nitrogen with hydrogen 

 to form ammonia, and in all probability a host of hydro- 

 carbons, of nitrogenous, phosphidic, and sulphidic matter, &c., 

 would be formed at the same time. 



One of the conditions of stability in a mixttire of hetreogeneons 

 molecules is constancy of temperature — an increase or decrease of 

 temperature causing decomposition and recombination. 



A lowering of the temperature is accompanied by complexity of 

 organisation in many of the molecules. 



For instance, organic matter exposed to destructive distillation 

 affords different products, according to the temperature employed. 



To resume. Our ideal atmospheric molecules, under the influence 

 of sunlight, are now passing from a higher to a lower temperature, 

 and molecules which were in harmony before will now cease to be 

 BO; decomposition and recombination will take place, resulting in 

 the formation of molecules of greater complexity. These series of 

 decompositions and recombinations would continue until molecules 

 of such complexity would be formed as to entitle them to be re- 

 garded as the nuclei out of which all past and present life has been 

 evolved. 



The organic remains which form our coal-beds very likely were 

 the agents in decomposing carbonic acid, retaining the carbon in 

 their tissue and eliminating free oxygen. A portion, at least, of 

 the free atmospheric nitrogen was produced by the same agents. 

 Now, " Commentator " will see that the worm, according to Dar- 

 winism, is the result of a series of antecedences — in other words — 

 of the organism and its environment. A Weeshmax. 



broken up by Nature's leaf-lace, is in reality, in secret, due to har- 

 mony of quantitative vibration actually taking place in the eye, as 

 musically in the ear. Does Mr. Thomas endorse this notion ? 



Commentator. 

 P.S. — Huxley himself (it seems rather forgetfully) uses the term 

 evolution in two different senses : Darwin's (natural selection), and 

 the normal one, of harmonious growth. 



MR. THOMAS'S "EVOLUTIOX," AND DARWIN'S. 



[1786] — May I be permitted to point out that Mr. Cave Thomas 

 (p. 486), appears to use the master-word, "Evolution," not in the 

 sense of the Master, viz. : natural selection ? The controversy 

 rotates upon that. May " Hallyards," and your correspondent, 

 inter alios, be allowed to claim Mr. Thomas as one of the champions 

 on their side, viz., that of evolution fer.?us natural selection — not 

 definitively denying evolution (growth — predestined development 

 by virtue of " the cause, the cause, my soul," infinite reason), but 

 doubting that natural selection is the cause of evolution, as Darwin 

 and his disciples Tyndall, Huxley, and Romanes, positively, not to 

 say, dogmatically, assert ? 



Darwin's grand object, speciality, and endeavour was to show 

 how evolution came about. In this, his utilisation of the struggle 

 for existence gave him the most brilliant success (I do not say 

 victory), which philosophic natural history has ever witnessed. 



How does Mr. Thomas elucidate or prove his proposition ; " adap- 

 tation to purpose, fitness, resolves itself into adaptation of propo- 

 sition to purpose; evolution, development, into the becoming of 

 the proportioned in all things ? " Who or what proposes ? Who or 

 what causes the becoming (TTcrden unci Werdenscin) "that is the 

 question ! " This is our difficulty ; but Darwin himself gave no 

 answer to the all-pertinent query. What is the cause of variation? 

 and the word, word, word, itself, seems to me utterly feeble and 

 inadequate to explain the marvellous manifestation of the Universe 

 — reason which we label development. 



Darwin himself, nor Moses and all the prophets, could get away 

 from Design", meaning teleology, harmony, fitness — not necessarily 

 impljring a designer — but, indeed, implying an eternal self-existence, 

 power, catise, reason (Hartmann asserts it to be unconscious). 



Again, how far does Mr. Thomas's principle "proportion" differ 

 from the world-old one, harmony, symmetry, no more beautifully 

 shadowed forth than in the world-old sentences, harmony of the 

 spheres, and the morning stars sang together for joy ? 



We may see the immediate origin of symmetry in the egg, that 

 (by virtue of the cause) divides into (ico halves, and goes on 

 deveVjping symmetrically. It occurred to me some time ago that 

 the pleastire we derive from contrast, e.rj., a fleecy sky, and heaven 



TERMITES AND NATURAL SELECTION. 



[1787] — The case has to be considered why many species of ante, 

 not only termites, develop wings at the end of. the season, and why 

 they kill each other. It would seem that they have no idea of 

 migrating in part, or laying up a sufficient separate store ; ergo, 

 as their space and provision are limited, they must kill a qvantum 

 suff. of the community in order that the rest may survive — not all 

 starve together. If this inner necessity exists, I do not see why 

 the fratricidal habit (" cannibal," Huxley calls it, in re the cray- 

 fish) should not be implanted, or inherent, in the animal, by virtue 

 of, or through the operation of. That Power which is in — which is 

 ■ — All, from the kaleidoscopic crystal up, through the " automa- 

 ton " animal, to man. I do not, I say, see why it should have had 

 to be "acquired" by natural selection. I cannot conceive how 

 the rudiments of such a habit began. Did it happen to come into 

 the head of one ant, or of many, to kill its brother ? or how ? I 

 confess the whole origin of natural selection, of haphazard variation, 

 seems to be enveloped in the densest fog. Haphazard variation I 

 do not believe in ; but, then, if variation took place according to 

 law, this is the real fo7>s ct orijc of evolution — the word variation 

 should be dropped, and we should consider al! as the manifestation 

 and outcome of predestined development — the incorporation and 

 operation of infinite nature (matter and reason) which I am wont 

 to term in the sublime all-comprising (aU-vtr.iassend) Hebrew ex- 

 pression, the I AM ; viz., all which is — ant, bee, crayfish, and 

 countless other animals, though, not as a rule, up to very man, liiU 

 each other. Now, will the Darwinians say this habit was " ac- 

 quired" f I do not believe it. Commentator. 



" ANIMALS OF THE PRESENT AND PAST." 



" Mr. G. Allen .... has [shown how unfotinded is] the idea 

 that in past ages the animals existing on the earth were very 

 much larger than those now known." . . . . " On the whole, it 

 may be doubted whether at any time .... the average size of the 

 ten largest creatures by sea and land exceeded the average size of 

 the ten largest species existing at the present day." — R. A. Proctob, 

 in KxowtEDGE, pp. 477-8. 



[1788] — "Tictrix causa diia placuit ; sed victa Catoni." First, 

 Mr. A. speaks of animals existing on the eirth : i.e. the planet, 

 without distinction of land and water; and Mr. P. adduces huge 

 water-creatures as a proof that earth's brood has not degene- 

 rated in size en the whole. No one ever denied this, perhaps; but, 

 certainly, the idea which Mr. A. seems to combat is the (un- 

 doubtedly) prevalent one that "big animals" were commoner of 

 old than now, on land ; (who, du reste, ever thinks of whales and 

 sharks as " animals " 'f) and this idea i (please, printer, don't 

 alter this — it is put for a reason) — think is quite con-ect. 



To go no further than K. itself — a short time ago there was a 

 cut of an old-world scene, with an ideal (but real) monster sur- 

 veying tree-tops or mere whin and gorse ; while above hovered 

 a Pterodactyl on steady wing, not inferior to him in size. 



Where on earth is anything so big to be found now f Even 

 the Peruvian condor measures only 40 feet across the wings,* from 

 tip to tip ; and no other bird comes near him. The elephant is our 

 biggest mammal ; the crocodile oui- biggest lizard ; were not the 

 megatherium, mammoth, mastodon, plesiosaurus, &c., far larger, 

 and quite as numerojts, if we may judge by their very frequent 

 remains? 



It is tuifair to lump in the sea with the land, for very obvious 

 reasons. The abundance of animals will always be regulated by 

 their food-supply. Thus, a single family of tigers requires a 

 range equal to half Middlesex to live comfortably. Now, the 

 surface alone of the sea is five or six times greater than of the 

 land ; cnhc the sea, and I can't even guess how much space will be 

 added for the food-supply of sea-beasts O'ver end above that of 

 land ones. Further, the water is the original habitat of all life ; 

 no wonder, then, if the finest extant specimens of life should be 

 found in their native element. Besides, man is the most cunning 

 destroyer ; and man cannot penetrate the sea-depths (destruc- 

 tively.) 



Mr. P. says {loc. cit.) " It is certain that the great land monsters 

 of the Jurassic age could not exist now. For while their numbers 



* This seems an enormous exaErgeration. — Ed. 



