Darwinism | Page 4

theory of heredity--The cause of variation--The
non-heredity of acquired characters--The theory of
instinct--Concluding remarks

CHAPTER XV
DARWINISM APPLIED TO MAN
General identity of human and animal structure--Rudiments and
variations showing relation of man to other mammals--The embryonic
development of man and other mammalia--Diseases common to man
and the lower animals--The animals most nearly allied to man--The
brains of man and apes--External differences of man and
apes--Summary of the animal characteristics of man--The geological
antiquity of man--The probable birthplace of man--The origin of the
moral and intellectual nature of man--The argument from
continuity--The origin of the mathematical faculty--The origin of the
musical and artistic faculties--Independent proof that these faculties
have not been developed by natural selection--The interpretation of the
facts--Concluding remarks

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PORTRAIT OF AUTHOR MAP SHOWING THE 1000-FATHOM
LINE 1. DIAGRAM OF VARIATIONS OF LACERTA MURALIS 2.
" VARIATION OF LIZARDS 3. " VARIATION OF WINGS AND
TAIL OF BIRDS 4. " VARIATION OF DOLICHONYX
ORYZIVORUS 5. " VARIATION OF AGELAEUS PHOENICEUS 6.
" VARIATION OF CARDINALIS VIRGINIANUS 7. " VARIATION
OF TARSUS AND TOES 8. " VARIATION OF BIRDS IN LEYDEN

MUSEUM 9. " VARIATION OF ICTERUS BALTIMORE 10. "
VARIATION OF AGELAEUS PHOENICEUS 11. " CURVES OF
VARIATION 12. " VARIATION OF CARDINALIS VIRGINIANUS
13. " VARIATION OF SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS 14. "
VARIATION OF SKULLS OF WOLF 15. " VARIATION OF
SKULLS OF URSUS LABIATUS 16. " VARIATION OF SKULLS
OF SUS CRISTATUS 17. PRIMULA VERIS (Cowslip). From
Darwin's Forms of Flowers 18. GAZELLA SOEMMERRINGI (to
show recognition marks) 19. RECOGNITION MARKS OF AFRICAN
PLOVERS (from Seebohm's Charadriadae) 20. RECOGNITION OF
OEDICNEMUS VERMICULATUS AND OE. SENEGALENSIS
(from Seebohm's Charadriadae) 21. RECOGNITION OF
CURSORIUS CHALCOPTERUS AND C. GALLICUS (from
Seebohm's Charadriadae) 22. RECOGNITION OF SCOLOPAX
MEGALA AND S. STENURA (from Seebohm's Charadriadae) 23.
METHONA PSIDII AND LEPTALIS ORISE 24. OPTHALMIS
LINCEA AND ARTAXA SIMULANS (from the Official Narrative of
the Voyage of the Challenger) 25. WINGS OF ITUNA ILIONE AND
THYRIDIA MEGISTO (from Proceedings of the Entomological
Society) 26. MYGNIMIA AVICULUS AND COLOBORHOMBUS
FASCIATIPENNIS 27. MIMICKING INSECTS FROM THE
PHILIPPINES (from Semper's Animal Life) 28. MALVA
SYLVESTRIS AND M. ROTUNDIFOLIA (from Lubbock's British
Wild Flowers in Relation to Insects) 29. LYTHRUM SALICARIA,
THREE FORMS OF (from Lubbock's British Wild Flowers in Relation
to Insects) 30. ORCHIS PYRAMIDALIS (from Darwin's Fertilisation
of Orchids) 31. HUMMING-BIRD FERTILISING MARCGRAVIA
NEPENTHOIDES 32. DIAGRAM OF MEAN HEIGHT OF LAND
AND DEPTH OF OCEANS 33. GEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
THE HORSE TRIBE (from Huxley's American Addresses) 34.
DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF PLANTS (from Ward's Sketch of Palaeobotany) 35.
TRANSFORMATION OF ARTEMIA SALINA TO A.
MILHAUSENII (from Semper's Animal Life) 36. BRANCHIPUS
STAGNALIS AND ARTEMIA SALINA (from Semper's Animal Life)
37. CHIMPANZEE (TROGLODYTES NIGER)

CHAPTER I
WHAT ARE "SPECIES," AND WHAT IS MEANT BY THEIR
"ORIGIN"
Definition of species--Special creation--The early
Transmutationists--Scientific opinion before Darwin--The problem
before Darwin--The change of opinion effected by Darwin--The
Darwinian theory--Proposed mode of treatment of the subject.

The title of Mr. Darwin's great work is--_On the Origin of Species by
means of Natural Selection and the Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life_. In order to appreciate fully the aim and object of
this work, and the change which it has effected not only in natural
history but in many other sciences, it is necessary to form a clear
conception of the meaning of the term "species," to know what was the
general belief regarding them at the time when Mr. Darwin's book first
appeared, and to understand what he meant, and what was generally
meant, by discovering their "origin." It is for want of this preliminary
knowledge that the majority of educated persons who are not naturalists
are so ready to accept the innumerable objections, criticisms, and
difficulties of its opponents as proofs that the Darwinian theory is
unsound, while it also renders them unable to appreciate, or even to
comprehend, the vast change which that theory has effected in the
whole mass of thought and opinion on the great question of evolution.
The term "species" was thus defined by the celebrated botanist De
Candolle: "A species is a collection of all the individuals which
resemble each other more than they resemble anything else, which can
by mutual fecundation produce fertile individuals, and which reproduce
themselves by generation, in such a manner that we may from analogy
suppose them all to have sprung from one single individual." And the
zoologist Swainson gives a somewhat similar definition: "A species, in
the usual acceptation of the term, is an animal which, in a state of

nature, is distinguished by certain peculiarities of form, size, colour, or
other circumstances, from another animal. It propagates, 'after its kind,'
individuals perfectly resembling the parent; its peculiarities, therefore,
are permanent."[1]
To illustrate these definitions we will take two common English