146 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



firmation; meanwhile we will at once make ourselves ac- 

 quainted with some of the objections offered to it, either 

 to the theory of selection in particular, or to the theory 

 of selection combined with the doctrine of transformation 

 as a whole; the most important of which Darwin has al- 

 ready considered and answered. 



If, so it is said, all living beings stand in distinct and 

 uninterrupted connection with one another, what has be- 

 come of the infinitely numerous intermediate forms which 

 must necessarily have existed? Our eyes turn first to 

 the organisms now living, and as, in accordance with 

 the theory, they are assumed to be the terminal twigs 

 of an infinitely ramified tree, which must obviously 

 press hard upon one another, and must each inde- 

 pendently diverge in all directions as varieties, we ask 

 for the intermediate forms of the species now existing 

 side by side. 



We may now appeal to the evidence already given 

 (p. 92, &c.), that in complete and extensive groups of or- 

 ganisms, modern scientific research has been able to dis- 

 cern nothing else than intermediate forms. Similarly, 

 the journey undertaken by Kerner in his little book on 

 " Good and Bad Species," in company with the botanist 

 Simplicius, from the West of Europe to the East, will 

 furnish an amusing number to the reader eager for 

 further material. The extension of the various species 

 of Cytisus which this naturalist has minutely investigated, 

 likewise exhibits the uninterrupted existence of connect- 

 ing forms on the territorial boundaries of species of which 

 the centres of propagation are more or less remote. 

 From all these instances, which may be reckoned by 

 thousands, it may be inferred that a large proportion are 



