CHAPTER XIII 



SOME EXTENSIONS OF DARWIN'S THEORY 



DURING the fifty years that have elapsed since the Darwinian 

 theory was first adequately, though not exhaustively, set 

 forth, it has been subject to more than the usual amount of 

 objection and misapprehension both by ignorant and learned 

 critics, by old-fashioned field-naturalists, and by the newer 

 schools of physiological specialists. Most of these objections 

 have been shown to be fallacious by some of the most 

 eminent students of evolution both here and on the Continent ; 

 but a few still remain as stumbling-blocks to many earnest 

 readers, and, as they are continually adduced as being serious 

 difficulties to the acceptance of natural selection as a sufficient 

 explanation of the origin of species, I propose to give a short 

 statement of what seem to me the three objections that most 

 require an answer at the present time. They are the 

 following : 



1. How can the beginnings of new organs be explained ? 



2. How can the exact co-ordination of variations, needed 

 to produce any beneficial result, be effected with sufficient 

 rapidity and certainty ? 



3. How is it that excessive developments of bulk, 

 weapons, ornaments, or colours, far beyond any utilitarian 

 requirements, have been so frequently produced ? 



These three objections are of increasing degrees of 

 importance. The first is, in my opinion, wholly speculative 

 and of no value, inasmuch as it applies to what happened in 

 the earlier stages of evolution, of which we have a minimum 

 of knowledge. The second is of somewhat more importance ; 

 for, though in the great majority of cases of adaptation the 

 ordinary well-known facts of variation and survival would 



252 



