THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 813.— March, 1909. 



THE DARWINIAN THEORY IN 1867 AND NOW. 



By W. C. McIntosh, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



On the 15th of March, 1867, a brief summary of Darwin's 

 views on Evolution and of the antagonistic doctrines was given 

 in a popular lecture to the Literary and Antiquarian Society of 

 Perth. Very urgent occupations in other fields and perhaps 

 a great disinclination to theorize have prevented further work in 

 an area so fascinating and so fruitful to many. The lecture 

 stands as it did in 1867, and in brackets a few paragraphs in- 

 dicate, in the briefest possible manner, the general trend of 

 facts and opinions on this and cognate subjects in recent times. 



Two great views (not to mention minor ones) have agitated the 

 scientific world on the question of the Origin of Species. Thus one 

 group of naturalists holds that every animal and every plant was 

 created as it is now seen, and that the progenitors in each case 

 were in all respects identical with their descendants ; moreover, 

 that where extinction has caused great blanks in the organic 

 world a new creation has occurred on the ruins of the former 

 epoch, the plants and animals of this new creation differing in 

 specific characters from those of pre-existing forms. The fol- 

 lowers of the second doctrine, again, assert that while creation 

 of a few primary forms took place at some epoch, all the modern 

 species of plants and animals are derived from these early pro- 

 genitors by direct lineal descent with modification (the Darwin- 

 Wallace theory). In the former case little or no variation of 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. XIII.. March, 1909. u 



