1909.] CONKLIN— THE WORLD'S DEBT TO DARWIN. xli 



decessors lay in the simple but all-important matter of evidence. 

 They had proposed more' or less possible and more or less reason- 

 able hypotheses, but these failed of general acceptance for lack of 

 evidence. Darwin brought to bear on the problem his great power 

 and range of observation; he collected in his books such vast 

 stores of facts bearing on his problem, that they are today the 

 wonder and admiration of scholars; in masterly manner he coor- 

 dinated the scattered and diverse evidence drawn from botany, 

 zoology, morphology, physiology, embryology, ecology, palaeontol- 

 ogy, geology, agriculture, horticulture and animal breeding, and he 

 presented the evidence with such force of logic, such clearness of 

 exposition, such judicial candor, that he finally and forever over- 

 threw the dogma of immutability of species and their special crea- 

 tion, and established in its place the doctrine of evolution. 



The effect and influence of this work can scarcely be overesti- 

 mated. Once Darwin had rendered acceptable to naturalists the 

 doctrine of organic descent with modifications, it was found that it 

 gave new meaning to the whole science of biology. Like a magic 

 formula it solved the age-long problems of classification, affinity, 

 good and bad species, aberrant and synthetic types; by it the mys- 

 teries of geographical and geological distribution were explained ; 

 by its guidance the records of the ancient world, as preserved in the 

 rocks, were deciphered and correlated and missing links between 

 many great groups of organisms found; in its light the history of 

 the development of the individual from the egg acquired new sig- 

 nificance. Physiology and psychology, no less than morphology, 

 have felt its transforming touch, and not least among its results 

 have been its revelations as to the nature, origin and relationships 

 of man. 



These stupendous results do not represent merely the frenzy 

 of a new enthusiasm. There have been, of course, assertions which 

 outran evidence, and skepticism which denied all evidence, but in 

 spite of these excesses every year since 1859 has contributed in ever 

 increasing measure to the more complete establishment of the doc- 

 trine of descent and to the wider extension of this theory into every 

 field of human thought and endeavor. 



The world's greatest debt to Darwin is for the work which he 



