1880. | Recent Literature. 193 
some branch of natural science. A work founded “ exclusively 
upon Darwin’s facts,” must of necessity strike wide of the mark, 
for many of the most important evidences for evolution are not to 
be found, or are barely mentioned in Darwin’s works. That Dar- 
winism is not the whole doctrine of evolution is perceived clearly 
enough by Mr. O'Neill, who devotes two or three opening chap- 
statement that “the origin of the fittest” is the primary problem 
of evolution, while the “survival of the fittest” (Darwinism) is 
secondary. 
Mr, O’Neill’s “ Refutation of Darwinism,” however, ¢onsists 
principally of a theory of his own, which is an extension of the 
principle of reversion to all kinds of variation now observed in 
domesticated animals; he does not concern himself so much with 
the wild ones, as they are not so fully considered in Darwin’s 
works. In brief, Mr. O'Neill believes that the present condition 
of animals is one of degradation from a condition of primitive 
perfection, which has been brought about by the severity of the 
struggle for existence! The whole theory is a readaptation of 
modern knowledge to the medizval idea of the creation and its 
degradation, consequent on the fall of man. 
There are two little difficulties in the way of this hypothesis. 
Firstly : since the doctrine of evolution is an attempted explana- 
tion of the “origin of species,” etc., etc., Mr. O'Neill’s work is 
entirely irrelevant, if true. By reversion he only brings us back 
to species in their pristine completeness or “ physiological integ- 
rity,” as he calls it; the question of how they attained this con- 
dition is not considered. It is fair to add that Mr. O'Neill prom- 
ises us a work on this subject in a foot note on page 435, which 
= i if the author’s expectations are realized, a wonderful work 
indeed, 
tegrity” to be a myth; that development is by divergent advances, 
Re vä reversion; and that a struggle for existence, not too severe, 
has been an agent of good, not of evil 
_ The book is written in a pleasant style and the author is some- 
times witty at Mr. Darwin’s expense. 
í Hattez’s NaruraL History oF TurBeLLARIAN Worms! —The 
rst of this series was the elaborate researches on the embryology 
: *Fravaux de l Insti, 7 7 la Station maritime de Wimer: 
: Fascicule nstitut Zoologigue de Lille et de n ma 
$ : Ps LEZ, Lille, I a 
879. 4to, pp. 213, 11 plates. 
Contributions a l'histoire naturelle des Turbellariés. Par PAUL ei o 
