496 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



invaluable work of Weismann, who, with Ms theory of germinal 

 selection, has completed the Darwinian theory of natural selec- 

 tion ; and whose theory of evolution, remarkable for its ingenuity 

 and for the extraordinary command of anatomical and physio- 

 logical knowledge possessed by its author, is the best attempt 

 at a really scientific interpretation of organic progress. 



We have briefly enumerated a few steps in the progress of 

 biology during the nineteenth century ; but the same story could 

 be told of every science. In the domain of astronomy, the new 

 science of astrophysics, associated with the name of ZoUner, 

 has been sectioned ofE ; we may mention, further, the discoveries 

 of Sir W. Huggins respecting the velocities with which certain 

 stars are approaching us and others receding ; and the researches 

 which have been made concerning the physical constitution of 

 the heavenly bodies, as well as their motions. In physics and 

 chemistry, the discovery of the radio-active properties of matter, 

 commencing with the investigations of Professor Rontgen, and 

 followed by those of M. and Mme. Curie, of Professor Becquerel, 

 of Professor Ramsay, and of Dr. Le Bon, have led to conclusions 

 calculated to revolutionise our ideas as to the natuie of matter 

 and force. The new theory of matter tells us that the matter 

 formerly supposed to be indestructible slowly dissolves itself as 

 a result of the continuous dissociation of its component atoms ; 

 that the products of the demateriahsation of the atoms constitute 

 a category of substances which are intermediary, in their pro- 

 perties, between ponderable bodies and imponderable ether — • 

 that is to say, between two worlds which, up tUl now, have 

 been considered as completely separated ; that the matter which 

 we formerly supposed to be inert, and capable only of restoring 

 the energy furnished it by the environment, is, on the contrary, 

 a colossal reservoir of energy — of intra-atomic energy — and that 

 it can act without any exterior stimulus ; and that it is from the 

 intra-atomic energy manifested during the dissociation of matter 

 that most of the forces of the universe, especially electricity and 



