CHAPTER TX: 
CRITICISMS OF THE THEORY OF NATURAL 
SELECTION. 
I WILL now proceed to consider the various objec- 
tions and difficulties which have hitherto been advanced 
against the theory of natural selection. 
Very early in the day Owen hurled the weight of 
his authority against the new theory, and this with a 
strength of onslaught which was only equalled by its 
want of judgment. Indeed, it is painfully apparent 
that he failed to apprehend the fundamental principles 
of the Darwinian theory. For he says :— 
Natural Selection is an explanation of the process [of trans- 
mutation] of the same kind and value as that which has been 
proffered of the mystery of “secretion.” For example, a par- 
ticular mass of matter in a living animal takes certain elements 
out of the blood, and rejects them as “bile.” Attributes were 
given to the liver which can only be predicated of the whole 
animal; the “appetency” of the liver, it was said, was for the 
elements of bile, and “‘biliosity,” or the “hepatic sensation,” 
guided the gland to their secretion. Such figurative language, 
I need not say, explains absolutely nothing of the nature of 
bilification '. 
Assuredly, it was needless for Owen to say that 
figurative language of this kind explains nothing; but 
1 Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 794. 
