THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST 



PROBLEMS OF EVOLUTION AND PRESENT 

 METHODS OF ATTACKING THEM 1 



PROFESSOR EDWIN G. CONKLIN 



Princeton University 



The problems of evolution have been much the same 

 from Darwin's day to this, but the present methods of 

 attacking them are in many respects different from those 

 which prevailed a generation ago. One great problem 

 with which the earlier naturalists were concerned, viz., 

 the fact of evolution, is by common consent, no longer a 

 problem; if it has not been demonstrated that the living 

 world arose through evolution, it has at least been ren- 

 dered so probable that demonstration could add little to 

 our certainty. And yet we should all like to see the 

 demonstration of evolution on a large scale, such as must 

 have been operative in the past history of living tilings, 

 but we have little reason to hope that such a demonstra- 

 tion will soon be made. 



The enduring problems of evolution concern the means 

 or factors of transmutation. Here also the old method of 

 attack, viz., observation and induction, led to no certainty 

 but only to probabilities of a lower order than those 

 which speak for the truth of evolution. For the past 

 twenty years the futility of the old theories and discus- 

 sions has been generally recognized, and the desire for 



