CHAPTER IV. 

 THE ORIGIlSr OF SPECIES. 



The Origin of Species. The different kinds of 

 animals are spoken of as species (see p. 122). It was 

 formerly supposed that these kinds or species were 

 essentially distinct ; and that the differences between 

 one kind and another were immutable, and had ex- 

 isted ever since the origin of life on our globe. Up 

 to the end of the last century such a thing as transmu- 

 tation of species had only occasionally been suggested, 

 and such suggestions had been made in a vague way, 

 and without any reference to carefully verified data. 

 The first zoologist who obtained a real insight into 

 the origin of species was Lamarck ; but his specula- 

 tions were known only to a few philosophers, and had 

 never reached the world at large. The same was the 

 case with the tentative speculations of several otter 

 writers. 



In July, 1858, the late Charles Darwin and Mr. 

 Alfred Russel Wallace simultaneously laid before the 

 world ^ a synthesis and an interpretation of certain 

 scientific facts which revolutionized pre-existing ideas 

 as to the nature and origin of the world of living 



' Xamely in papers i-ead before the Linnean Society. 

 49 „ 



