THE WEAK SIDES OP NATURAL SELECTION. / / 



Darwin adds that the absence of " the infinitely many fine grada- 

 tions between past and present species required on the 'theory,' is 

 the most obvious of the many objections which may be urged against 

 it." This he attributes to the imperfection of the geological record. 

 Perhaps he has relied too much on the dogma, natura non facit 

 saltum. 



Dr. Gerard Smith, M.R.C.S., writes: — ■ 



The Paper is a very important one, it is very desirable that 

 biologists should be very accurate in their formulation of the facts 

 of " natural selection," at present it is spoken of as if it were a 

 cause, whereas the expression " natural selection " only really forms 

 a convenient heading under which to group the results of observa- 

 tions upon the gradual modification of organisms ; the way in which 

 variation is used. So far as we have gone, valuation is creation, fur 

 the power of variation must either be a production de novo of 

 organs ; or it must be the results of originally implanted potentiali- 

 ties in the protoplasm ; I have heard and seen much of rudimentary, 

 i.e., degenerated organs, but fail to learn much about nascent 

 organs ; everywhere there are structures which must be complete, 

 or nothing, that is, if the theory of natural selection as a cause is to 

 hold ; a nascent and as yet useless organ has a meaning if one 

 believes in an implanted potentiality towards a certain grade of 

 perfection or differentiation. So far as I can learn, on the purely 

 materialistic conception, I am expected to put my faith in a pro- 

 cess which is the result of a previously existing (but not foreseen or 

 implanted) potentiality for variation in a useful direction producing 

 variations having at first no relation to their environment, bub 

 subsequently made useful, though useless at first, by use ; in pre- 

 paration for a future more complete utility, which is not foreseen 

 or expected ! This is rather a hard creed I find. 



The Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D., F.L.S., writes:— 

 All arguments respecting the " struggle for existence " should, I 

 venture to think, be stated in reference to some particular climate 

 and country, and to its Fauna, which, whether consisting of insects, 

 or other forms of organic life as well, happen to serve as the subject 

 under discussion. It is obviously impossible to arrive at any world- 

 wide generalization on this topic, because climatic influences which 

 in the steaming tropics act with astonishing rapidity and productive 

 power on all forms of living beings, prove actually the retarding, 

 not to say destructive agents in respect of all except the very 

 hardiest species in the frozen north. While vice versa, arctic 

 regions are singularly free from, and in many instances, altogether 

 without the noxious creatures, and animals of prey that are con- 

 stantly occupied in diminishing the numbers of their weaker and 

 more defenceless brethren. By far the most manifold forms of lite 



