DARWINISM AND MALTHUS. Zoe 
For his part he thanked the reader of the paper for his illumi- 
nating suggestion, and only wished that the discussion had not taken 
the turn it had, but had been on the lines so clearly indicated in 
the paper. 
The Rev. A. IRvinc, D.Sc., B.A., writes :— 
The author of the interesting paper on “ Darwinism and Malthus ” 
seems scarcely to realize the crudeness of the Darwinian theory as 
an attempt to account for the fact of evolution. As a theory it has 
been most fruitful in the advance of thought and the enlargement of 
our ideas of creation. It has gone a long way to raise Natural 
History (both of plants and animals) from a science merely of 
observation and classification to an inductive science; but serious 
modifications of Darwin’s theory have to be recognized in what we 
may call the ‘* Neo-Darwinism.” 
Professor George Henslow, in his lecture on “Darwinism and 
Present Day Rationalism,”* remarks (p. 9)—‘ Darwinism was a 
theory to account for the process of evolution, as it is expressed in 
the title of his book—The Origin of Species by means of Natural 
Selection.” It is “based on two postulates—(i) the original creation 
of a few or one primitive being ; and (ii) the existence of variations 
without which selection can do nothing” (p. 7). “ Darwin’s first 
and fundamental mistake was to introduce the element of structure 
or form into the theory of Malthus. It has never been shown that 
slight changes of structure or form, or what are called ‘individual 
differences,’ have anything to do with the death or survival of 
individuals. Darwin’s second mistake was to regard individual 
differences as a source of varieties in nature.” The Law of 
Adaptation is ‘the true and only interpretation of evolution, and 
replaces the old argument of design”? (p. 20). This implies 
(what Darwin assumed) that there is a power residing in the nucleus 
[of a cell] which can respond to external influences ” (p. 18). 
Here we can surely recognize directivity as an extension of the 
* See Christian Apologetics ; London (John Murray), 1903. 
+ To the Botanist ; and the latest pronouncement of the physiologist 
(Prof. Starling) is—‘‘ Adaptation must be the deciding factor in the 
origin of species, and in the succession of the different forms of life upon 
this earth.” 
rae 
