22 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



of animals in domestication, and will act as safe and useful guides 

 to us in the study of nature as well. 



All life does not exist under the same conditions in nature. The 

 habitable surface of the globe is immensely diversified ; these diversi- 

 ties affect the life of the locality in some cases to such an extent 

 that an expert can indicate the locality by its products. How it is 

 accomplished has not yet been determined, but that it is accom- 

 plished requires no proof, as no one denies it. Geographical distri- 

 bution asserts its right to consideration from every student of nature, 

 but differences of opinion exist as to the amount of importance that 

 should be attached to it as a cause of variation in nature, some re- 

 garding it as of little or no consequence, others as of the very highest 

 importance. Of recent writers on the subject, one says, " no one 

 can study organic life without being impressed with the great power 

 of environment." Another speaks of the organic kingdom " lying 

 plastic and passive in the hands of environment." Others insist on 

 the influences of physical conditions as the cause of the origin of 

 species. Some claim the influence of climate and temperature as 

 the producing cause of specific change, whilst one asserts that " dif- 

 ferences of specific value can only originate through the direct action 

 of external conditions ; " and yet another concludes, " that no power 

 which acts only as a selective, and not as a transforming influence, 

 can ever be put forth as an efficient cause of these changes." 



Now, whilst accepting to the fullest extent all that can be 

 claimed for the power of external conditions to produce change in 

 organic life, I reject utterly this artificial, unscientific, and bewilder- 

 ing use of the term ' species.' A species is a set of forms that will 

 commingle and produce fertile progeny, no matter how diverse they 

 may be in appearance, all such different forms being varieties of 

 that species. Hybrids, being uniformly infertile, such uniform in- 

 fertility being proof that the parents were of different species, there- 

 for these external influences are not making species, they are but 

 rectifying existing ones. So I shall review the subject from this 

 position. 



All species had their origin in the past, just how far in the past 

 it may not be possible to determine, further than to say — before man 

 appeared. All species did not appear at the same time. Geology 

 has made that plain to us. All naturalists are agreed that organic 

 life in nature is in complete harmony with its environment, that is, 



