638 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 175. 



parture from the ancestral type is evidence 

 that the hereditary principle is not the domi- 

 nant one in organic activity, not the motive 

 power, so to speak, which keeps up the con- 

 tinuity of living. Hereditj' is rather to be con- 

 sidered as the resultant of the total constraints 

 and interferences of environment, an equilib- 

 rium established between the medium in which 

 the organism lives and its own intrinsic energy. 

 Hence, we may speak of heredity as acquired, 

 . •while variation, change or evolution is that 

 fundamental principle in all vital activity which 

 constitutes the chief distinctive characteristic of 

 living organic bodies. 



It is expressed in the chemical phenomena of 

 metabolism, in which there is a diversion from 

 the normal relatious of stability of equilibrium 

 among atoms, up to a state of instability and 

 complexity of composition ; phj'sically it is ex- 

 pressed in the phenomena of the cellular bodies 

 passing from rest, simplicity and relative homo- 

 geneity, up to states of activitjf, multiplicity and 

 heterogeneity and the development of the indi- 

 vidual ; and evolution of a race, or the acquire- 

 ment of characters not possessed by ancestors, 

 is a still higher exhibition of the same prin- 

 ciple. 



TJndoubtedljr Darwin, writing the ' Origin of 

 Species,' thought he had discovered, in Natural 

 Selection, the chief cause of this evolution, and 

 evolutionists have since been following his lead. 

 But a calm review of the facts in the case must 

 convince us that we are no nearer finding the 

 cause of evolution than we were before Darwin. 

 In explaining, so far as we have, the Origin of 

 Species, we have been discovering the relations 

 which natural selection, isolation and other 

 so-called ' factors of evolution ' bear to the pro- 

 duction of those temporary vortices in the path 

 of evolution which we call ' individuals ' and 

 'species.' The method of action of these 

 ' factors ' is bj' inducing the repetition of favor- 

 able steps of variation, swinging them back into 

 cycles of reproduction, and thus making species 

 where favorable conditions exist ; in other 

 words, the method is by establishing the habits 

 or laws of heredity within organisms. 



It is the recognition of the evolution principle 

 as fundamental that puts us on the right path 

 of discovery. "What we have to account for is 



not the evolution, but the baitings of evolution 

 in the various stages of cell, individual and 

 species. 



Given material particles, in motion, in a re- 

 sisting medijim, and vortices are explainable ; 

 but no amount of change in the medium is 

 capable of accounting for the initiation of 

 motion in particles normally at rest. 



H. S. Williams. 



New Haven, Ct., April 26, 1898. 



To THE Editor of Science : Kindly allow 

 me space for a word of comment on the letter 

 of Professor W. H. Huttou in your issue of 

 April 22d. 



Professor Hutton protests against the use of 

 the term Selection in certain cases, saj'ing : 

 ' ' Selection means the act of picking out certain 

 objects from a number of others, and it implies 

 that these objects are chosen for some reason or 

 other." As he refers to my vdews later on I 

 think it possible that he has seen the table 

 which I published in this Journal, November 

 19, 1S97, reprinting it from a book of mine, in 

 which I note twelve sorts of ' selection' in the 

 current literature of evolution. Seeing that 

 the definition given by Mr. Hutton is pre-Dar- 

 winian, and that much of the warfare which 

 Darwin and subsequent evolutionists had to 

 wage was preciselj'' over this term Selection, 

 leaving aside the question whether Darwin 

 chose the term wisely or not in the first in- 

 stance, it is scarcely possible now to go back to 

 the pre-Darwinian view which Professor Hut- 

 ton advocates. Indeed, he himself, in this let- 

 ter says concerning natural selection: "The 

 term has become so firmly established that it 

 can well be allowed to pass if used only in Dar- 

 win's sense of advantage gained in the struggle 

 for existence, either bj' the individual or by the 

 species." 



This admitted, there is onlj' one thing to do, 

 that is to recognize the two general uses of the 

 term Selection, the pre-Darwinian (or conscious) 

 Selection, 'for some reason or other,' and the 

 Darwinian (or post-Darwinian) Selection of 

 which swryiVaZ on ground of utility is the sole cri- 

 terion. Now it is true enough that all sorts of 

 confusion arise from the interchange of these 

 two sorts of selection : and it was with a view 



