462 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1109 



Jones, S.B. (Vanderbilt), chemistry; Elliott 

 G. Brackett, M.D. (Harvard), orthopedic surg- 

 ery, and Frederick H. Verhoeff, Ph.B. (Tale), 

 ophthalmological research. 



Dr. Otto Diels, of Berlin, has been called 

 to the chair of chemistry at Kiel. Dr. R. 

 Pohl, decent in Berlin, has been called to an 

 associate professorship of physics at Got- 

 tingen. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



DID SPENCER ANTICIPATE DARWIN? 



In his book, entitled " The First Principles 

 of Evolution," Mr. S. Herbert in speaking of 

 Herbert Spencer says : 



Not only was he the first independently to adopt 

 the evolutionary principle as a means of the so- 

 lution of various problems of matter and mind, 

 actually anticipating Darwin's discovery by a few 

 years — a fact very little known by the general 

 public — but he gradually elaborated a complefe 

 theory of evolution, comprising in one great 

 formula the law of all existence.i 



This statement, except the latter part of it, 

 may hardly be said to be in conformity with 

 the facts. When we remember the eminent 

 services of Lamarck in the application of the 

 evolutionary principle in his " Philosophic 

 Zoologique" published in 1809, and subse- 

 quently (1815) in his " Histoire Naturelle des 

 Animaux sans Vertebres," it seems hardly fair 

 to ascribe priority to Spencer in the adoption 

 of the evolutionary principle, or even in adopt- 

 ing it " as a means for the solution of various 

 problems of matter and mind " ; and so far as 

 Spencer anticipating Darwin is concerned, it 

 is certainly incorrect, if by Darwin's discov- 

 ery we understand, as most people do, the prin- 

 ciple of natural selection. 



It is true, of course, that as early as 1852, 

 seven years prior to the publication of the 

 " Origin of Species," Spencer presented with 

 a clearness not since surpassed, the evolution- 

 ary hypothesis ; and that in 1855 he published 

 his " Psychology," which assumed the correct- 



1 Herbert, S., "The First Principles of Evolu- 

 tion," p. 4, London, 1913. 



ness of the broad evolutionary doctrine. But 

 evolution and Darwin's discovery, as of course 

 Mr. Herbert well knows, are quite different 

 things. 



In his autobiography. Vol. II., p. 56, Mr. 

 Spencer says: 



Up to that time (1859) or rather up to the time 

 in which the Linnean Society had become known 

 to me, I held that the sole cause of organic evolu- 

 tion is the inheritance of functionally produced 

 modification. "The Origin of Species" made it 

 clear to me that I was wrong; and that the larger 

 part of the facts can not be due to any such 

 cause. 



In an essay on " Transcendental Physiol- 

 ogy," first published in 1857, Spencer used the 

 following language: 



Various facts show that acquired peculiarities 

 resulting from the adaptation of constitution to 

 conditions, are transmissible to offspring. Such 

 acquired peculiarities consist of differences of 

 structure of composition in one or more of the 

 tissues. This is to say, of the aggregate of simi- 

 lar organic units composing a germ, the group 

 going to the formation of a particular tissue will 

 take on the special character which the adaptation 

 of that tissue to new circumstances had produced 

 in the parents. We know this to be a general law 

 of organic modifications. Further, it is the only 

 law of organic modifications of which we have any 

 evidence.2 



Spencer himself instances this passage as 

 showing the stage of his thought at that time 

 concerning the factors of evolution. It will 

 be observed that there is not the slightest hint 

 of natural selection. 



Again in his " Principles of Biology," Vol. 

 I., p. 530, Mr. Spencer uses for the first time 

 the phrase " survival of the fittest," as a sub- 

 stitute for " natural selection." In a footnote 

 he explains why he sometimes uses the phrase 

 " natural selection " after he had suggested 

 the expression " survival of the fittest," and 

 this expression had been approved by Wallace 

 as a substitute for the other. He says: 



The disuse of Dr. Darwin's phrase would have 

 seemed like an endeavor to keep out of sight my 

 own indebtedness to him and the indebtedness of 



2 Spencer, H., "Essays," Vol. I., p. 91. 



