I909-] GOODALE— DARWIN AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES. xxi 



whole, stand the best chance? Not necessarily the strongest, but 

 those best fitted for the conditioning surroundings will survive. And 

 then came a startling inquiry from both of them ; may not all this 

 perhaps account for much that we know about the structure and 

 distribution of organisms and the groups of organisms which we 

 call species? This is a very innocent question and the papers 

 did not excite much attention at the time ; in fact Mr. Darwin says 

 that the only remark he could recall was by a naturalist who thought 

 that all " that was new in them was false, and what was true 

 was old." 



A year later the same suggestion, amplified in many particulars 

 and copiously illustrated was published in the famous work entitled 

 the " Origin of Species," and then an alarm was sounded all along 

 the line. 



We pass now to a short study of the immediate effect of the 

 publication of the " Origin of Species." Let us not waste any time 

 in recalling the bitter strife which the alarm-signal began. Let 

 bygones be bygones. Those who were most prominent in antagon- 

 izing the hypothesis are most anxious now to have their hostile 

 attitude forgotten. In the first place, we may say in a general 

 way that the hypothesis met' every problem fairly and squarely. 

 It explained the succession of life on our planet, and pointed out a 

 solution of the most puzzling problems of distribution. There were 

 a few questions in regard to fossils which seemed to demand that 

 the hypothesis should be strengthened by one of the tentative hypoth- 

 eses suggested by Lamarck, which had fallen into soil sterile in his 

 time, but now receptive and fertile. It explained the mysteries of 

 parasitism, and of vanishing and rudimentary organs. It opened 

 up new fields of research in all directions, and gave a fresh interest 

 to all the old parts of the science. It showed that resemblances 

 meant relationship, that is, affinity by birth, and that it was no 

 longer necessary to apologize shamefacedly for saying that two 

 plants or two animals were related. Under the new light it could 

 be seen that the species were no longer to be regarded as dry things 

 to be placed on shelves and catalogued, but as histories to be 

 wrought out. To be sure, this is not always easy to do, and there 



