306 EVOLUTION IN BIOLOGY. [LECT. 



tributed so much to discredit evolution, in the early 

 part of this century, as the floods of easy ridicule 

 which were poured upon this part of Lamarck's specu- 

 lation. The theory of natural selection, or survival 

 of the fittest, was suggested by Wells in 1813, 

 and further elaborated by Matthew in 1831. But 

 the pregnant suggestions of these writers remained 

 practically unnoticed and forgotten, until the theory 

 was independently devised and promulgated by 

 Darwin and Wallace in 1858, and the effect of its 

 publication was immediate and profound. 



Those who were unwilling to accept evolution, 

 without better grounds than such as are offered by 

 Lamarck, or the author of that particularly unsatis- 

 factory book, the " Vestiges of the Natural History of 

 the Creation," and who therefore preferred to suspend 

 their judgment on the question, found, in the principle 

 of selective breeding, pursued in all its applications 

 with marvellous knowledge and skill by Mr. Darwin, 

 a valid explanation of the occurrence of varieties and 

 races ; and they saw clearly that, if the explanation 

 would apply to species, it would not only solve the 

 problem of their evolution, but that it would account 

 for the facts of teleology, as well as for those of mor- 

 phology ; and for the persistence of some forms of life 

 unchanged through long epochs of time, while others 

 undergo comparatively rapid metamorphosis. 



How far " natural selection" suffices for the pro- 

 duction of species remains to be seen. Few can doubt 

 that, if not the whole cause, it is a very important 

 factor in that operation ; and that it must play a 



