Septesibee 30, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



425 



odors characteristic of chemical activity, 

 must be considered in my day to have been 

 moribund if not actually defunct. 



The rooms of the ISTatural History Society 

 would now cause a smile. From the low 

 ceiling were suspended an alligator, a 

 turkey buzzard and such other creatures 

 as would not fit well in the wall-cases. 

 In one corner leaned lazUy a large cup- 

 sponge, a receptacle for the dust which 

 gravity constantly supplied and the rejecta 

 contributed at frequent intervals by the 

 members. Around the walls was a very 

 promiscuous collection of birds and mam- 

 mals, some shot and prepared by past 

 members, others the gift of so-called bene- 

 factors who, not knowing what else to do 

 with them, turned them over to the Society. 

 Quartz crystals and other showy but not 

 very valuable minerals hobnobbed with 

 skeletons, one of which, at least, must have 

 been very useful, if one could judge by the 

 perennial absence of some of the limbs which 

 had been removed, as was said, for study. 



Botanj' was represented by a single 

 cabinet whose pigeon-holes were filled with 

 plants of ISTew England, enriched by choice 

 fragments of specimens collected by well- 

 meaning persons in the Alps and by travel- 

 lers in the Holy Land. The plants were 

 arranged, or rather shuflSed, in the case ac- 

 cording to the wishes or necessity of the 

 curator of the time being. We were quite 

 eclectic in our view of botanical classifica- 

 tion, some pigeon-holes being arranged on 

 the Linnsean system, some on the natural 

 system and some apparently alphabetically. 

 "Whatever real value the collections may 

 have had, once a year they were at least 

 ornamental. Every year the members were 

 photographed and the alligator, the turkey- 

 buzzard and the human skeleton were taken 

 down and added to the group to show that 

 we were really the Natural History Society 

 and not the Hasty Pudding or the Phi 

 Beta Kappa. 



The old collections were long ago dis- 

 persed, and the little which was of value is 

 now incorporated with the different univer- 

 sity collections. You may, perhaps, be 

 curious to know what the members of the 

 Society did. That is easily told. They all 

 talked and some dissected cats. The talk 

 was to a great extent about the origin of 

 species and, no matter what was the subject 

 of the papers announced for the evening 

 meeting, it was not often that we adjourned 

 without dropping into a discussion on 

 evolution. Few had really read Darwin's 

 book, but all felt able to discuss the great 

 scientific question of the day, in which re- 

 spects, perhaps, we did not differ from some 

 older and more learned people. Although 

 the traditional man who is always on prin- 

 ciple ' on the other side ' was not wanting, 

 we were practically unanimous in our 

 opinion. We all felt that a new day had 

 dawned ; that the old view of looking at 

 species as fixed creations and ignoring, as 

 far as possible, the significance of their 

 tendency to vary had been forever upset 

 by Darwin, and that hereafter we must 

 look to evolution as brought about by 

 natural selection to interpret species as we 

 now find them. Not being well informed 

 in regard to the history of scientific opinion, 

 we assumed somewhat hastily that before 

 Darwin all was darkness, and we did not 

 trouble ourselves to go back and inquire 

 whether there were not others who had 

 had, at least, glimpses of the great truths of 

 evolution, but even had we heard that there 

 were some before Darwin who did not be- 

 lieve in the fixity of species it would still 

 have been true that it was Darwin's book 

 by which, practically, the world at large 

 was enlightened on the subject. 



Forty years have passed and, inasmuch as 

 we are all evolutionists either of the Darwin 

 school or some related school, the question 

 suggests itself, is our belief in evolution 

 merely dogmatic like some of the theolog- 



