DARWINISM ATTACKED. 4* 



"We here come to the first parting of the ways between 

 scientists of different schools. On the one hand we find those 

 who are so thoroughly convinced of the universality of the 

 principle of natural selection that they insist that all specific 

 characters are useful, however useless they may seem. It 

 is beyond question that they are led to this belief in the 

 utility of all characters, not from observation, but simply 

 from their belief in the sufficiency of the law of natural 

 selection. They tell us that we know too little of the actual 

 life of organisms in nature to enable us to say that any- 

 given character is not of use ; and to make a claim that any- 

 thing, no matter how trivial, is useless, is simply to confess 

 ignorance. We must acknowledge that many seemingly 

 useless organs have been found to have utility as soon as the 

 life habits of animals are better understood. Certainly, 

 utility has been found more universal than was believed to 

 be possible a quarter of a century ago. The followers of 

 Darwin have given very much attention to this matter. 

 They have pointed out many lines of utility hitherto not 

 dreamed of. They have considered great multitudes of 

 cases of seemingly useless characters, and by a little imagina- 

 tion have suggested some use to which they may be adapted. 

 If one reads the recent works of Wallace, the most promi- 

 nent advocate of this position, he will not fail to be im- 

 pressed with the fact that utility is much more widely 

 applicable as an explanation of seemingly trivial characters 

 than might have been thought possible. The position held 

 by this writer is, that inasmuch as the law of natural 

 selection is a universal force which all admit, while all other 

 forces of evolution are yet in dispute, and inasmuch as many 

 seemingly useless organs have been shown to be of use, it is 

 perfectly legitimate to claim that when we come to under- 

 stand them, we shall find that all characters are of value, and 

 that the principle of survival of the fittest has been concerned 

 in the development of them all. If this is true, the survival 



