I A POSITIVE PROOF WANTED. 43 



of the most : dangerous sort, more especially for 

 creationists, whether there are not serious inconveni- 

 ences in refusing 1 to believe in that which cannot be 



o 



demonstrated by actual, precise, visible and tangible 

 fact. But this point had better be left out, and we 

 will accept the reply of the creationists as it stands. 



They ask for a proof of transmutation : we must 

 secure that proof and meet their demand. How so ? 

 Through direct experiment, through experimental 

 transformism. The notion is not exactly a recent 

 one, but in the present debate it represents the only 

 line along which we may expect to discover the 

 positive facts which are necessary. As Buffon has 

 said, " Man will never be conscious enough of nature's 

 power, nor of his power on nature." And this state- 

 ment I believe to be positively true. The only thing 

 to be clone, at all events, is to subject the notion to 

 the only possible test of which it admits, and to begin 

 experiments. 



I have just said that the notion is not of recent 

 origin. The fact is that we find it clearly expressed 

 in the Nova Atlantis, where Bacon advises experi- 

 mental investigations for the purpose of discover- 

 ing how the environment reacts on living organ- 

 isms and forms species. But the most authorized 

 defender of experimental transformism has surely 

 been Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, and many 



