1865.] Science, Politics, and Religion. l l J3 



and profit by the strictures to which they are subjected. . A writer 

 in a weekly contemporary remarked some time since that in passing 

 over a field manured with " sewage," his nostrils were offended 

 by the oduur, and he expressed the hope that " the incense breath- 

 ing morn " might not soon become a thing of the past. In our 

 large towns, and more especially in those where industry has made 

 the most rapid strides, this is already the case, and the pale-faced 

 citizen is compelled from time to time to seek renewed health and 

 strength in the open fields and country lanes. Certainly the sewage 

 of those towns renders them at present still more unhealthy than they 

 would otherwise be, and it sometimes taints the sources of our water 

 supply, causing men to drink the poison as well as to inhale it. Still 

 we should look with aj>prehension upon the pouring of this flood of 

 noxious liquid over the fields that form a refuge from the overcrowded 

 city, unless the most effective measures were taken to secure its com- 

 plete deodorization. May greed of gain never do its evil work here 

 as it has done in those districts where the injurious products of 

 chemical manufactures have laid waste the country round, and where 

 legislative enactments have been requisite to teach men their duty 

 towards their neighbours. We recommend Mr. Disraeli to follow the 

 example of his noble chief (who has been a great sufferer by the last- 

 named evil), and to direct his attention to such objects as these. He 

 would then succeed in gaining popularity amongst the class whose 

 suffrages he more especially courts, " the agri cultural interest," and 

 would earn the respect even of the despised Darwinians, who would 

 give him credit for seeking to alleviate the pains and penalties that 

 accompany the " struggle for existence ! " 



Having thus briefly touched upon a few important scientific move- 

 ments of a utilitarian character, in order to exhibit the necessity for 

 increased vigilance and activity on the part of scientific men, we 

 would now inquire whether their theoretical observations are deserving 

 of the derision and denunciation which they have elicited in certain 

 quarters ; and we shall first direct our attention to the Darwinian doc- 

 trine of transmutation of species by " natural selection." 



When Mr. Darwin published his book he told us that a close 

 observation of nature led him to believe that new species of plants and 

 animals were formed from previously existing ones by the " natural 

 selection " of types, adapted to the changing character of the inorganic 

 world, or, in other words, through the power which certain individuals 

 possessed, by virtue of their peculiar structure, to cope with natural 

 difficulties under which their congeners succumbed. Those privileged 

 individuals bred and multiplied until surrounding circumstances (inor- 

 ganic nature) necessitated a further modification in them, and then a 

 fresh "natural selection" took place; or, to speak more correctly, a 

 slow change was from these causes always proceeding in animal and 

 plant types concurrently with the changing surface of the globe. 

 The author adduced a large amount of precise and minute evidence 

 in the form of changes artificially effected by himself and others in 

 domesticated animals, very similar to those which, on a large scale, 

 he regarded it to be the prerogative of nature to produce. 



