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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIX 



In place of this doctrine we have little teaching of a positive kind 

 to offer. We have direct perception that new forms of life may arise 

 sporadically, and that they differ from their progenitors quite suffi- 

 ciently to pass for species. By the success and maintenance of such 

 sporadically arisiny farms, morrorcr, there is no reasonable doubt that 

 innumerable strains, whether in isolation or in community with their 

 co-derivatives, have as a fact arisen, which now pass in the lists of 



Broadly stated, this tradition is that evolution mani- 

 fests itself suddenly in one character or group of char 

 acters; that either through individual variation such a 

 character or group of characters is preserved and accu- 

 mulated by selection, or, through saltation that such a 

 character or group of characters suddenly arises and is 

 imperishably fixed in the race by selection. 



This is the essential feature of the Darwinian concep- 

 tion of evolution, namely, that an organism advances now 

 here, now there. Such a conception is one which would 

 naturally be fosterd by observers of single living plants 

 or animals living under unnatural conditions, or by ex- 

 perimentalists who observe a brief contemporary chain 

 of organisms. 



The observation of " characters" in phyla or groups of 

 organisms advancing on a grand scale in space or in time 

 shows that this Darwinian tradition is so partial and inad- 

 equate as to be practically false. It has been observed 

 that every organism consists of an almost infinite number 

 of characters, it has also been observed that the evolu- 

 tion of some of these characters may be so conspicuous as 

 for a time to attract the attention of the observer or as 

 to constitute the chief magnet for the power of selection. 

 It has not been observed that the entire organism waits 

 on any one of these characters. On the contrary, in all 

 progressive organisms in which a very large number of 

 characters are simultaneously observed it proves that 

 every character in every part of the body is in a contin- 

 uous state of movement. This is the actual result of 

 observation and measurement. 



As regards natural selection in relation to the 



