1882.] 
Vegetable Soil. 
33i 
logically involved in the first, did not seem so to the outside 
world, and which indeed separated his position from that of 
Mr. Wallace. 
Will the doctrine of Evolution retain its supremacy, or 
will it fade away as rapidly as it has arisen ? 
As regards general principles we are as likely to return to 
the physics of Aristoteles, to the astronomy of Ptolemy, or 
to the chemistry of Beecher and Stahl, as to the natural 
history of Cuvier. Changes of detail, in proportion to the 
complexity of the subject, may be looked for. It is highly 
probable that Natural Selection will occupy a less prominent 
position among the agencies determining the development of 
organic forms than Darwin seems to have at first considered. 
But such re-adjustments and additions will neither lessen 
the merit and the reputation of the man nor affedt the 
world-wide influence of his conclusions. It is something to 
have been the contemporaries and the countrymen of Charles 
Darwin, and to have held even the humblest place among 
his followers. 
III. VEGETABLE SOIL.* 
By G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I.A., &c. 
VER ten years ago, in the pages of the “ Geological 
Magazine,” I published papers on the “ Growth of 
Vegetable Soil” (1869, vol. vi., pp. 263 and 348), 
while in 1875 the same subject was gone over in the 
appendix of “ Valleys and their Relations to Faults, &c.” 
In those writings what Darwin had then published in refer- 
ence to earthworms was mentioned and discussed ; while 
evidence was given to show that this eminent observer 
appeared to ignore too much the soil due to vegetable growth 
and decay, and the work done by ants and other disturbers 
of the soil. It seems as if Dr. Darwin is unacquainted with 
these writings, as in his recently published book on “ Vege- 
* This paper was written prior to the death of the eminent philosopher, 
Dr. Darwin, and was ready for the press when his lamentable death was 
announced, which consequently delayed its publication. 
Z 2 
