THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



BY CHARLES OTIS WHITMAN 



[Charles Otis Whitman, Head Professor of Zoology, University of Chicago, since 

 1892; Director of Marine Biological Laboratory, Wood's Holl, Massachusetts, 

 since 1888. Graduate of Bowdoin College, 1868; A.M. 1871; Ph.D. Leipzig, 

 1878; LL.D. University of Nebraska, 1894; Sc.D. Bowdoin, 1894; Fellow, 

 Johns Hopkins University, 1879. Professor of Zoology, Imperial University of 

 Japan, 1880-81 : Naples Zoological Station, 1882; Assistant in Zoology, Harvard, 

 1883-85; Director of Allis Lake Laboratory, 1886-89; Professor of Zoology, 

 Clark University, 1889-92. Member of National Academy of Sciences; Ameri- 

 can Academy of Arts and Sciences; The Linnean Society; and various other 

 scientific and learned societies. Editor of Journal of Morphology; Biological 

 Bulletin; and Biological Lectures.} 



THE problem of problems in biology to-day the problem which 

 promises to sweep through the present century as it has the past 

 one, with cumulative interest and correspondingly important re- 

 sults is the one which became the life-work of Charles Darwin, 

 and which cannot be better or more simply expressed than in the 

 title of his epoch-making book, The Origin of Species. 



Darwin certainly made this problem one of universal interest, and 

 no one will deny that the work which he did has revolutionized 

 both the morphological and the physiological branches of biology. 

 Indeed, no field of thought has escaped the leavening influence of 

 his conclusions. 



The prevailing belief up to Darwin's time that species were im- 

 mutable forms, each separately designed and fashioned by the 

 Creator, and each endowed with all its instincts and equipped 

 with a structural organization perfectly adapted to its prescribed 

 sphere of life, this old belief was certainly effectually exploded, 

 and is now passing into oblivion. 



With one mighty stroke Darwin released biology from the thrall- 

 dom of supernaturalism. In the place of special creations and cata- 

 clysmal revolutions, he set up progressive evolution through the 

 operation of simple natural laws. To unveil that sacred mystery 

 of mysteries, and reduce it to the level of natural laws, was a shock 

 to all Christendom. The idea of a self-regulating, progressive evolu- 

 tion of species appeared, even to many eminent men of science, to 

 be a "heresy." This was the case with Sir John Herschel, and even 

 Sir Charles Lyell was at first of the same opinion, although he soon 

 became convinced that natural laws were just as efficient and 

 uniform in operation in the organic as in the inorganic world. 



The outcome is familiar history. The sciences all the way up 

 to psychology have experienced a wonderful renascence, and the 



