THE DARWINIAN THEORY. 



99 



misrepresentations of the modern results of the science. In 

 vigorous language he portrays the beliefs which Darwin would 

 have us entertain, and adds his view of the real state of the 

 facts, e.g. : He (Darwin) would have us believe that each new 

 species originated in consequence of some slight change in those 

 that preceded, when every geological formation teems with types 

 that did not exist before. He would have us believe that 

 animals disappear gradually, when they are as common in the 

 uppermost bed in which they occur as in the lowest or any inter- 

 mediate bed. Species appear suddenly and disappear suddenly 

 in successive strata. Agassiz also denies that the fossiliferous 

 deposits took place during subsidence, and instances the whole of 

 North America as being formed of beds that were deposited 

 during successive upheavals. 



[To-day the evolutionists bring forward a vast amount of 

 evidence from every quarter of the globe in favour of descent 

 with modification in almost every group in the animal kingdom. 

 Nowhere have these views spread with greater acceptance than 

 on the Continent of Europe, and especially in Germany, where 

 Haeckel and Weismann in their several fields in zoology, and 

 Strasburger in botany, have conspicuously laboured. In our 

 own country the work of Huxley, Flower, Avebury, Galton, 

 F. M. Balfour, Lankester, Eomanes, Bateson, Weldon, Poul- 

 ton, and many others have brought to light important facts 

 which are of permanent value irrespective of their theoretical 

 bearings.] 



Some most interesting facts are given by Darwin and his 

 supporters in expounding the geographical distribution of plants 

 ' and animals, with regard to oceanic islands. The absence of 

 terrestrial mammals and batrachians and the presence of bats 

 is held as inexplicable on the theory of creation. Darwin also 

 adverts to the fact that at St. Helena there is reason to believe 

 that the naturalised plants and animals — that is, those imported 

 by man — have nearly exterminated the native productions; and 

 he taunts the defenders of the doctrine of the creation of each 

 separate species in its most appropriate locality by saying that 

 they will have to admit that a sufficient number of the best 

 adapted plants and animals were not created on oceanic islands ; 

 for man has unintentionally stocked them from various sources 



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