106 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



Again he says: "It is no great difficulty that 

 fresh-water shells, as Prof. Phillips has urged, have 

 remained almost unaltered from the time when they 

 first appeared to the present day, for these shells will 

 have been subjected to less severe competition than 

 the mollusks inhabiting the more extensive area of 

 the sea with its innumerable inhabitants."* From 

 this explanation it would seem that we ought to ex- 

 pect great advance in organization in marine mol- 

 lusks, but he says "that certain Brachiopods have 

 been but slightly modified from an extremely remote 

 geological epoch." f These salt-water Brachiopods 

 have existed a vastly greater length of time than the 

 fresh-water mollusks, and yet, with all the competi- 

 tion and change of conditions that the ocean can 

 furnish, they have made hardly any perceptible 

 change in structure. 



Again Darwin says: "The problem whether or- 

 ganization on the whole has advanced is in many 

 ways excessively intricate. The geological record, at 

 all times imperfect, does not extend far enough back, 

 as I believe, to show with unmistakable clearness that 

 within the known history of the world organization 

 has largely advanced." % 



This indeed sounds strange from one who teaches 

 that all organic beings, including man, were derived 

 from, at most, only three or four forms, and, judging 

 from analogy, probably from one original form of 

 organism. If be cannot, from the known geological 

 record, which probably extends over 50,000,000 years, 

 assert that "organization has largely advanced," what 

 infinite time beyond the Primordial period would be 

 necessary in order to make a large advance? 



In accordance with Darwin's idea, let us notice the 



* Origin of Species, p. 314. + Ibid, p. 313. % Ibid, p. 314. 



