﻿2 
  THE 
  ZOOLOGIST. 
  

  

  supreme 
  amongst 
  educated 
  men, 
  and 
  was 
  accepted 
  — 
  at 
  any 
  rate, 
  

   nominally 
  — 
  by 
  zoologists. 
  Then 
  in 
  the 
  middle 
  of 
  the 
  nineteenth 
  

   century 
  came 
  Spencer, 
  Wallace, 
  and 
  Darwin, 
  and 
  the 
  first 
  of 
  

   these 
  in 
  point 
  of 
  time 
  was 
  Spencer. 
  Since 
  the 
  appearance 
  of 
  

   the 
  works 
  of 
  these 
  great 
  men 
  " 
  transformism 
  " 
  or 
  "evolution" 
  

   has 
  acquired 
  a 
  place 
  in 
  Philosophical 
  Biology, 
  from 
  which 
  it 
  is 
  

   certain 
  it 
  will 
  never 
  be 
  deposed, 
  however 
  much 
  views 
  as 
  to 
  the 
  

   actual 
  nature 
  of 
  the 
  transformism 
  may 
  differ. 
  

  

  At 
  the 
  present 
  time 
  the 
  efforts 
  of 
  biologists 
  are 
  directed 
  to 
  

   discovering 
  the 
  mechanism 
  by 
  which 
  transformation 
  actually 
  

   takes 
  place. 
  Herbert 
  Spencer 
  applied 
  his 
  idea 
  of 
  evolution 
  (as 
  

   a 
  continued 
  cosmic 
  change 
  that 
  is 
  constantly, 
  if 
  not 
  uniformly, 
  

   going 
  on) 
  to 
  living 
  creatures, 
  including 
  the 
  structure 
  and 
  

   activities 
  of 
  man 
  himself. 
  His 
  works 
  have 
  been 
  largely 
  studied 
  

   all 
  over 
  the 
  world, 
  and 
  have 
  contributed 
  greatly 
  to 
  the 
  diffusion 
  

   of 
  the 
  idea 
  that 
  plants, 
  animals, 
  and 
  man 
  are 
  the 
  results 
  of 
  

   natural 
  laws, 
  partly 
  the 
  same 
  as, 
  and 
  partly 
  comparable 
  with, 
  

   those 
  that 
  have 
  modelled 
  the 
  features 
  of 
  inorganic 
  nature. 
  

  

  I 
  have 
  said 
  that 
  Spencer 
  was 
  in 
  point 
  of 
  time 
  the 
  first 
  of 
  the 
  

   recent 
  great 
  transformist 
  naturalists 
  of 
  the 
  nineteenth 
  century. 
  

   We 
  shall 
  probably 
  learn 
  from 
  his 
  autobiography 
  when 
  he 
  first 
  

   conceived 
  the 
  idea 
  of 
  one 
  set 
  of 
  natural 
  laws 
  governing 
  all 
  

   phenomena. 
  But 
  we 
  can 
  learn 
  from 
  his 
  writings 
  that 
  in 
  1852 
  

   he 
  was 
  sympathetically 
  disposed 
  towards 
  the 
  " 
  development 
  

   hypothesis," 
  and 
  that 
  in 
  1854 
  he 
  had 
  a 
  vague 
  notion 
  of 
  Evolu- 
  

   tion 
  as 
  a 
  general 
  phenomenon. 
  In 
  1854 
  he 
  became 
  intimately 
  

   acquainted 
  with 
  Huxley, 
  and 
  thereafter 
  his 
  ideas 
  underwent 
  a 
  

   rapid 
  and 
  great 
  development 
  ; 
  so 
  that 
  in 
  1857, 
  in 
  his 
  Essay 
  on 
  

   Transcendental 
  Physiology, 
  we 
  find 
  a 
  really 
  adequate 
  statement 
  

   of 
  his 
  views 
  on 
  Organic 
  Evolution. 
  Here 
  he 
  tells 
  us 
  that 
  the 
  

   inheritance 
  of 
  acquired 
  characters 
  is 
  possibly 
  "the 
  universal 
  

   law 
  ; 
  comprehending 
  not 
  simply 
  those 
  minor 
  modifications 
  which 
  

   offspring 
  inherit 
  from 
  recent 
  ancestry, 
  but 
  comprehending 
  also 
  

   those 
  larger 
  modifications, 
  distinctive 
  of 
  species, 
  genus, 
  order, 
  

   class, 
  which 
  they 
  inherit 
  from 
  antecedent 
  races 
  of 
  organisms." 
  

   And, 
  again, 
  in 
  the 
  same 
  essay 
  : 
  — 
  " 
  We 
  might 
  almost 
  say 
  that 
  

   just 
  as 
  some 
  original 
  race 
  of 
  animals, 
  which 
  multiplies 
  and 
  

   spreads 
  into 
  different 
  regions 
  of 
  the 
  earth, 
  becomes 
  differentiated 
  

   into 
  several 
  races 
  through 
  the 
  adaptation 
  of 
  each 
  to 
  its 
  conditions 
  

  

  