o 



86 REPORT — 1M66. 



all carried along tlie same liigli road of development and diverging to acquire tlicir 

 respective peculiarities ; so tliat certain structural types are largely traceable among 

 them, binding them together and suggestive of a common origin. We can arrange 

 them in gradational series, not one series but several, of wliich one emanates in 

 man. We lind each animal so suited to its position and so surely disappearing 

 when the conditions cease to be favourable to it, and as a necessary consequence of 

 the alteration of those conditions, as to suggest that it was modified from a com- 

 mon standard not merely /or but hy the conditions which surround it. The records 

 of the earth's history prove this adaptation to have been the case in former times 

 as well as now, the faunas varying in correspondence with the variations in the 

 surface and climate and temperature of our planet ; and we can clearly prove cer- 

 tain modifications in species to be caused by changes in the external conditions in 

 which they have been placed. Moreover, by attention to external curiosities and 

 selection in breeding, we can induce deviations in the offspring, and so imitate, it 

 has been suggested, the process that goes on in nature. 



These, with some other considerations, coincide with our scientific yearning to 

 unfold the plan of the universe and trace in its growtli and the development of its 

 parts the operation of natural law. They seem to give us hints as to the mode of 

 construction of the animal kingdom which it is the legitimate work of physiology 

 to gather up and weave into a consistent theory according with some new con- 

 ceptions of creative plan. 



But, on the other hand, so higli a point on the hill of knowledge (a point ima- 

 gined rather than yet seen) can be but slowly reached. Much labour is required 

 to clear away the tliicliets and level the groimd, lest the springs of genius carry us 

 down rather than up. Much obseiwation must be made and much evidence accu- 

 mulated before we can see our way to a theory of transmutation of species. The 

 only valid, but it is a cardinal, objection to such a theoiy is the want of evidence 

 that a change of the kind inferred really takes place, and that so little proof of it 

 is forthcoming in spite of the attention wliicli has for many years been anxiously 

 directed to the subject. The nearly allied species tantalize us by a certain flexi- 

 bility of type and by their near approach to one another ; but tliey seem rigidly 

 to abstain from the boundary lines ; and tlie variations that take place seem to 

 have no especial reference to an approximation to those lines, but rather to a cer- 

 tain power of accommodation to external circumstances necessary for the preser^a- 

 tion of the .species. We find considerable varieties of the human species. We 

 do not clearly yet know how to connect even these with one another or with a 

 common origin. Some of tliese are more, some less, allied to the monkey ; but 

 between the lowest of the human and the highest of the monkey there is a gap, 

 the width of which will be differently estimated by diiferent persons, but so 

 wide that there has never j'et been any doubt to wliich side any specimen should 

 be referred. Now, if the one has been transmuted from the other, how comes it 

 that the series has been broken and the connecting links ceased to exist ? The 

 conditions are still favourable to the existence of the man and to the existence of 

 the monkey ; why are they not stiU favourable to the existence of the species that 

 have connected tlie one with the other ? we may wonder, not only that the traces 

 of species in intst time are not forthcoming, but tliat the species are not now living. 

 IMoreover, we do not know that any conceivaljle conditions, operating through any 

 number of years, would bring the gorilla or chimpanzee one vv'hit nearer to man, 

 would give them a foot more capable of bearing the body erect, a brain more 

 capable of conceiving ideas, or a larTOX more capable of communicating them. It 

 is possible that such changes might be effected. One would fancy it probable ; but 

 we have at present too little right to assume it, and the more extended the 

 research without increasing the evidence the less does the probability become. 



Neither do I think that much direct assistance has been given hj the theoiy of 

 natural selection based upon the .s<r«///7/e /or e.rf'stewce, ablj' propounded after long 

 and careful research and ably defended as it has been ; it has dispersed some of the 

 fallacies and false objections which beset the idea of transmutation of species, and 

 has so placed the question in a fairer position for discussion, but it reminds us 

 forcibly of some of the real difficulties and objections. Though artificial selection 

 may do much to modify species, it is rather by pioduciiig varieties than by draw- 



