Introduction 1 3 



entitled to ask for some proof of the primeval origin 

 in the form of this protoplasmic unit. He must 

 satisfy us as to the beginning ; this he makes no 

 attempt to do ; he assumes the Amoeba without any 

 account of its origin, and then postulates the theory, 

 that by means of the struggle for existence, and the 

 survival of the fittest, natural selection produced a 

 graduated scale of beings which, by a process of evolu- 

 tion, gives us every variety of species from the one- 

 celled protozoon up to " the beauty of the world — the 

 paragon of animals " — the supreme and complicated 

 " genus homo sapiens." 



In regard to the latter we can look forward to a 

 brighter outlook once we discard the dread influence 

 of Darwin and Malthus upon his fate. The teaching 

 of the former meant that existence for him must ever 

 mean a struggle, constant and unvarying, wearing out 

 his " little life " in toil and pain, until its " fitful fever " 

 ends in death ; that of the latter, that only by means 

 of war, pestilence, and famine, and " all causes, 

 whether of a moral or physical nature, which tend pre- 

 maturely to weaken the human frame," can the popu- 

 lation be prevented from outrunning the means of 

 subsistence. As he said, it would be difficult to name 

 any check that did not come " under some form of vice 

 or misery." If this were true, woe betide the fate of 

 man. It could only increase his misery as the ages 

 roll, and of necessity all hope of a brighter and happier 

 future would have to be abandoned. Every bene- 

 factor of the race, such as Lord Lister, " the great 

 Life-Saver," as he has been so appropriately named, 

 could only be considered a traitor to humanity. 

 No doubt Malthus and his followers would so con- 

 sider him, but to-day we take a different view. 

 Lord Rosebery lately delivered an oration on the 

 science and art of medicine, and among other things 



