ON EVOLUTION. 293 
REMARKS UPON THE FOREGOING PAPER 
BY SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 
January 8, 1888, 
The title of the paper is not a very attractive one to a person whose 
studies have led him to regard the modern doctrine of Evolution, as 
expounded by its more enthusiastic advocates, as savouring more of 
superstition than of either Revelation or Science. There is, however, much 
valuable thought and suggestion in the paper, and it tends to clearing up 
the fallacies which encompass the word “Evolution” as used to include 
the distinct ideas of causation and development, and to confound them in 
the popular mind. 
When men shall see clearly that under this misused word they are 
including in a most uncritical manner the ideas of causation both primary 
and secondary, and of development both direct and indirect, we may hope 
for some rational philosophical views as to the origins of things and the 
changes they may undergo, Until this mental confusion shall be dispelled, 
we shall have little progress in the discussion of these great subjects. 
FURTHER REPLY BY THE AUTHOR. 
In his communication touching my paper, SunGEoN-GENERAL Gorpon 
has drawn attention to a profoundly interesting question, and one that 
ought not to be overlooked in a treatise on Evolution. But it does not 
arise within the scope of my argument ; for the theory of physical evolution 
by no means involves the assumption that man, considered as an animal, 
must have been improving from the time of his first appearance on earth. 
His environment has doubtless been modified, partly by astronomical and 
geological changes, and partly also by the manifold effects of advancing 
culture and civilisation; but no historical evidences of retrogression, 
supposing them to be forthcoming, may reasonably be adduced in refutation 
of the theory in question, unless, on a comparison of the conflicting 
influences to which the various races of men have been thus exposed in 
their strugele for existence it can be proved that there is no adverse balance 
