258 



REV. PKOF. G. HENSLOW, M.A.^ F.L.S., 



how any process of Evolution could overcome the otherwise 

 insuperable barriers which would oppose themselves to the upward 

 course of Evolution. 



Page 248, line 18. No experiments exist which in the slightest 

 degree prove the " Evolution " of Man or other living beings, and 

 the " coincidences " upon which the induction rests relating to such 

 " Evolution " of Human Beings or animals, or e^-en of plants, give 

 no warrant for assuming that such evolution is established " as a 

 fact." Consequently, I do not admit that either have been 

 " incontestably and permanently established"; and "Evolution" 

 remains, as it has always been, an hypothesis and nothing more. 



Page 248, paragraph 4. To start with the assumption that Life has 

 been endowed with the capacity of directing the physical forces of 

 nature is unsatisfying to our intelligence ; this involves the further 

 assumption that as there are infinite varieties of life, each one has 

 been endowed with the capacit}^ of directing the lifeless forces of 

 nature so as to build up the structures of that infinite variety of 

 plant and animal life which we observe around us. It is manifest 

 that Life, unless itself directed, could never, through the ages which 

 have passed, succeed in forming the varied structures of the 

 countless forms of plant life, tree life, bird life, animal life, or 

 marine life. 



Page 249, paragraph 3. Professor Henslow says that "the 

 inference of a very wide deduction is that the Cause lies in the direct 

 action of the external conditions of life to which the plant responds." 

 I would submit that if the Cause of Adaptation or Modification lies 

 in the external conditions of life, i.e., Environment, it does not lie 

 or consist in life itself ; and if this is so, this paragraph entirely 

 contradicts the second paragraph on this page, where we are told 

 " we must look to Life alone as being endowed with the capacity of 

 directing the lifeless forces of nature." 



Page 249, line 15. I maintain that for the word "Evolution" 

 should be substituted " Variation or Modification of Form." 



Page 249, line 17. I must deny that Self-adaptation is the "' Origin 

 of Species," for there is no evidence that any one of the many instances 

 mentioned or of the specimens submitted, where specific difi'erence 

 is apparent, is the result of changed environment ; for though it is 

 so evident that plants, in some or many respects similar, have 

 different characteristics when found growing under different con- 



