DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION 37 



and [continues that "both are variations on the 

 theme, 'How to take in a whole generation/ 

 and neither is very likely to give ages to come a 

 high opinion of the latter part of our century," 

 or when he states that " for men of clear intellect, 

 Darwinism has long been dead " ; when Dennert 

 entitles a treatise, " Vom Sterbelager des Darwin- 

 ismus," these writers are in no way alluding to 

 the group of works of which mention has just been 

 made. These rather violent and, in the present 

 writer's opinion, exaggerated statements have 

 been quoted in order to exhibit the antipodes of 

 scientific opinion to the attitude assumed by 

 Haeckel, Weismann and their schools. What the 

 first-named writers are alluding to is to Darwin- 

 ism proper, namely, the Theory of Natural 

 Selection and the other minor theories associated 

 with Darwin's attempt to explain the mechan- 

 ism of transformation. It is to the first and most 

 important of these that we must now turn our 

 attention. When doing so, it is above all things 

 important to recall to one's mind the title-page of 

 the book in which Darwin's views were first given 

 to the world. It is probable that many, if not most, 

 persons suppose that the title of the book is the 

 Origin of Species, tout court, but what it really is 

 may here be set down : The Origin of Species by 

 means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of 

 Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. This title 

 contains two phrases, " fatal phrases which have 

 become almost household words,"f as Professor 



t Evolution and Adaptation, p. 107. The reader in search of a 

 detailed criticism of Darwinian views by an acknowledged scien- 

 tific authority may be referred to this work. (Macmillan, 1903.) 



