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Leipzig, 1864. + +2. EXAMINATION DU LIVRE DE M. DARWIN SUR L'ORIGINE DES ESPECES. PAR P. +FLOURENS. Paris, 1864. + +In the course of the present year several foreign commentaries upon Mr. +Darwin's great work have made their appearance. Those who have perused +that remarkable chapter of the 'Antiquity of Man,' in which Sir Charles +Lyell draws a parallel between the development of species and that of +languages, will be glad to hear that one of the most eminent +philologers of Germany, Professor Schleicher, has, independently, +published a most instructive and philosophical pamphlet (an excellent +notice of which is to be found in the 'Reader', for February 27th of +this year) supporting similar views with all the weight of his special +knowledge and established authority as a linguist. Professor Haeckel, +to whom Schleicher addresses himself, previously took occasion, in his +splendid monograph on the 'Radiolaria'*, to express his high +appreciation of, and general concordance with, Mr. Darwin's views. + + [footnote] *'Die Radiolarien: eine Monographie', p. 231. + +But the most elaborate criticisms of the 'Origin of Species' which have +appeared are two works of very widely different merit, the one by +Professor Kolliker, the well-known anatomist and histologist of +Wurzburg; the other by M. Flourens, Perpetual Secretary of the French +Academy of Sciences. + +Professor Kolliker's critical essay 'Upon the Darwinian Theory' is, like +all that proceeds from the pen of that thoughtful and accomplished +writer, worthy of the most careful consideration. It comprises a brief +but clear sketch of Darwin's views, followed by an enumeration of the +leading difficulties in the way of their acceptance; difficulties which +would appear to be insurmountable to Professor Kolliker, inasmuch as he +proposes to replace Mr. Darwin's Theory by one which he terms the +'Theory of Heterogeneous Generation.' We shall proceed to consider +first the destructive, and secondly, the constructive portion of the +essay. + +We regret to find ourselves compelled to dissent very widely from many +of Professor Kolliker's remarks; and from none more thoroughly than +from those in which he seeks to define what we may term the +philosophical position of Darwinism. + +"Darwin," says Professor Kolliker, "is, in the fullest sense of the +word, a Teleologist. He says quite distinctly (First Edition, pp. 199, +200) that every particular in the structure of an animal has been +created for its benefit, and he regards the whole series of animal +forms only from this point of view." + +And again: + +"7. The teleological general conception adopted by Darwin is a mistaken +one. + +"Varieties arise irrespectively of the notion of purpose, or of +utility, according to general laws of Nature, and may be either useful, +or hurtful, or indifferent. + +"The assumption that an organism exists only on account of some definite +end in view, and represents something more than the incorporation of a +general idea, or law, implies a one-sided conception of the universe. +Assuredly, every organ has, and every organism fulfils, its end, but +its purpose is not the condition of its existence. Every organism is +also sufficiently perfect for the purpose it serves, and in that, at +least, it is useless to seek for a cause of its improvement." + +It is singular how differently one and the same book will impress +different minds. That which struck the present writer most forcibly on +his first perusal of the 'Origin of Species' was the conviction that +Teleology, as commonly understood, had received its deathblow at Mr. +Darwin's hands. For the teleological argument runs thus: an organ or +organism (A) is precisely fitted to perform a function or purpose (B); +therefore it was specially constructed to perform that function. In +Paley's famous illustration, the adaptation of all the parts of the +watch to the function, or purpose, of showing the time, is held to be +evidence that the watch was specially contrived to that end; on the +ground, that the only cause we know of, competent to produce such an +effect as a watch which shall keep time, is a contriving intelligence +adapting the means directly to that end. + +Suppose, however, that any one had been able to show that the watch had +not been made directly by any person, but that it was the result of +the modification of another watch which kept time but poorly; and that +this again had proceeded from a structure which could hardly be called +a watch at all--seeing that it had no figures on the dial and the hands +were rudimentary; and that going back and back in time we came at last +to a revolving barrel as the earliest traceable rudiment of the whole +fabric. And imagine that it had been possible to show that all these +changes had resulted, first, from a tendency of the structure to vary +indefinitely; and secondly, from something in the surrounding world +which helped all variations in the direction of an accurate +time-keeper, and checked all those in other directions; then it is +obvious that the force of Paley's argument would be gone. For it would +be demonstrated that an apparatus thoroughly well adapted to a +particular purpose might be the result of a method of trial and error +worked by unintelligent agents, as well as of the direct application of +the means appropriate to that end, by an intelligent agent. + +Now it appears to us that what we have here, for illustration's sake, +supposed to be done with the watch, is exactly what the establishment +of Darwin's Theory will do for the organic world. For the notion that +every organism has been created as it is and launched straight at a +purpose, Mr. Darwin substitutes the conception of something which may +fairly be termed a method of trial and error. Organisms vary +incessantly; of these variations the few meet with surrounding +conditions which suit them and thrive; the many are unsuited and become +extinguished. + +According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle bullet fired +straight at a mark; according to Darwin, organisms are like grapeshot +of which one hits something and the rest fall wide. + +For the teleologist an organism exists because it was made for the +conditions in which it is found; for the Darwinian an organism exists +because, out of many of its kind, it is the only one which has been +able to persist in the conditions in which it is found. + +Teleology implies that the organs of every organism are perfect and +cannot be improved; the Darwinian theory simply affirms that they work +well enough to enable the organism to hold its own against such +competitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of +indefinite improvement. But an example may bring into clearer light +the profound opposition between the ordinary teleological, and the +Darwinian, conception. + +Cats catch mice, small birds and the like, very well. Teleology tells +us that they do so because they were expressly constructed for so +doing--that they are perfect mousing apparatuses, so perfect and so +delicately adjusted that no one of their organs could be altered, +without the change involving the alteration of all the rest. Darwinism +affirms on the contrary, that there was no express construction +concerned in the matter; but that among the multitudinous variations of +the Feline stock, many of which died out from want of power to resist +opposing influences, some, the cats, were better fitted to catch mice +than others, whence they throve and persisted, in proportion to the +advantage over their fellows thus offered to them. + +Far from imagining that cats exist 'in order' to catch mice well, +Darwinism supposes that cats exist 'because' they catch mice +well--mousing being not the end, but the condition, of their +existence. And if the cat type has long persisted as we know it, the +interpretation of the fact upon Darwinian principles would be, not that +the cats have remained invariable, but that such varieties as have +incessantly occurred have been, on the whole, less fitted to get on in +the world than the existing stock. + +If we apprehend the spirit of the 'Origin of Species' rightly, then, +nothing can be more entirely and absolutely opposed to Teleology, as it +is commonly understood, than the Darwinian Theory. So far from being a +"Teleologist in the fullest sense of the word," we would deny that he +is a Teleologist in the ordinary sense at all; and we should say that, +apart from his merits as a naturalist, he has rendered a most +remarkable service to philosophical thought by enabling the student of +Nature to recognise, to their fullest extent, those adaptations to +purpose which are so striking in the organic world, and which Teleology +has done good service in keeping before our minds, without being false +to the fundamental principles of a scientific conception of the +universe. The apparently diverging teachings of the Teleologist and of +the Morphologist are reconciled by the Darwinian hypothesis. + +But leaving our own impressions of the 'Origin of Species,' and turning +to those passages especially cited by Professor Kolliker, we cannot +admit that they bear the interpretation he puts upon them. Darwin, if +we read him rightly, does 'not' affirm that every detail in the +structure of an animal has been created for its benefit. His words are +(p. 199):-- + +"The foregoing remarks lead me to say a few words on the protest lately +made by some naturalists against the utilitarian doctrine that every +detail of structure has been produced for the good of its possessor. +They believe that very many structures have been created for beauty in +the eyes of man, or for mere variety. This doctrine, if true, would be +absolutely fatal to my theory--yet I fully admit that many structures +are of no direct use to their possessor." + +And after sundry illustrations and qualifications, he concludes (p. +200):-- + +"Hence every detail of structure in every living creature (making some +little allowance for the direct action of physical conditions) may be +viewed either as having been of special use to some ancestral form, or +as being now of special use to the descendants of this form--either +directly, or indirectly, through the complex laws of growth." + +But it is one thing to say, Darwinically, that every detail observed in +an animal's structure is of use to it, or has been of use to its +ancestors; and quite another to affirm, teleologically, that every +detail of an animal's structure has been created for its benefit. On +the former hypothesis, for example, the teeth of the foetal Balaena +have a meaning; on the latter, none. So far as we are aware, there is +not a phrase in the 'Origin of Species', inconsistent with Professor +Kolliker's position, that "varieties arise irrespectively of the notion +of purpose, or of utility, according to general laws of Nature, and may +be either useful, or hurtful, or indifferent." + +On the contrary, Mr. Darwin writes (Summary of Chap. V.):-- + +"Our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound. Not in one case +out of a hundred can we pretend to assign any reason why this or that +part varies more or less from the same part in the parents.... The +external conditions of life, as climate and food, etc., seem to have +induced some slight modifications. Habit, in producing constitutional +differences, and use, in strengthening, and disuse, in weakening and +diminishing organs, seem to have been more potent in their effects." + +And finally, as if to prevent all possible misconception, Mr. Darwin +concludes his Chapter on Variation with these pregnant words:-- + +"Whatever the cause may be of each slight difference in the offspring +from their parents--and a cause for each must exist--it is the steady +accumulation, through natural selection of such differences, when +beneficial to the individual, that gives rise to all the more important +modifications of structure which the innumerable beings on the face of +the earth are enabled to struggle with each other, and the best adapted +to survive." + +We have dwelt at length upon this subject, because of its great general +importance, and because we believe that Professor Kolliker's criticisms +on this head are based upon a misapprehension of Mr. Darwin's +views--substantially they appear to us to coincide with his own. The +other objections which Professor Kolliker enumerates and discusses are +the following*:-- + + [footnote] *Space will not allow us to give Professor + Kolliker's arguments in detail; our readers will find a + full and accurate version of them in the 'Reader' for + August 13th and 20th, 1864. + +"1. No transitional forms between existing species are known; and known +varieties, whether selected or spontaneous, never go so far as to +establish new species." + +To this Professor Kolliker appears to attach some weight. He makes the +suggestion that the short-faced tumbler pigeon may be a pathological +product. + +"2. No transitional forms of animals are met with among the organic +remains of earlier epochs." + +Upon this, Professor Kolliker remarks that the absence of transitional +forms in the fossil world, though not necessarily fatal to Darwin's +views, weakens his case. + +"3. The struggle for existence does not take place." + +To this objection, urged by Pelzeln, Kolliker, very justly, attaches no +weight. + +"4. A tendency of organisms to give rise to useful varieties, and a +natural selection, do not exist. + +"The varieties which are found arise in consequence of manifold +external influences, and it is not obvious why they all, or partially, +should be particularly useful. Each animal suffices for its own ends, +is perfect of its kind, and needs no further development. Should, +however, a variety be useful and even maintain itself, there is no +obvious reason why it should change any further. The whole conception +of the imperfection of organisms and the necessity of their becoming +perfected is plainly the weakest side of Darwin's Theory, and a 'pis +aller' (Nothbehelf) because Darwin could think of no other principle by +which to explain the metamorphoses which, as I also believe, have +occurred." + +Here again we must venture to dissent completely from Professor +Kolliker's conception of Mr. Darwin's hypothesis. It appears to us to +be one of the many peculiar merits of that hypothesis that it involves +no belief in a necessary and continual progress of organisms. + +Again, Mr. Darwin, if we read him aright, assumes no special tendency +of organisms to give rise to useful varieties, and knows nothing of +needs of development, or necessity of perfection. What he says is, in +substance: All organisms vary. It is in the highest degree improbable +that any given variety should have exactly the same relations to +surrounding conditions as the parent stock. In that case it is either +better fitted (when the variation may be called useful), or worse +fitted, to cope with them. If better, it will tend to supplant the +parent stock; if worse, it will tend to be extinguished by the parent +stock. + +If (as is hardly conceivable) the new variety is so perfectly adapted to +the conditions that no improvement upon it is possible,--it will +persist, because, though it does not cease to vary, the varieties will +be inferior to itself. + +If, as is more probable, the new variety is by no means perfectly +adapted to its conditions, but only fairly well adapted to them, it +will persist, so long as none of the varieties which it throws off are +better adapted than itself. + +On the other hand, as soon as it varies in a useful way, i.e. when the +variation is such as to adapt it more perfectly to its conditions, the +fresh variety will tend to supplant the former. + +So far from a gradual progress towards perfection forming any necessary +part of the Darwinian creed, it appears to us that it is perfectly +consistent with indefinite persistence in one estate, or with a gradual +retrogression. Suppose, for example, a return of the glacial epoch and +a spread of polar climatal conditions over the whole globe. The +operation of natural selection under these circumstances would tend, on +the whole, to the weeding out of the higher organisms and the +cherishing of the lower forms of life. Cryptogamic vegetation would +have the advantage over Phanerogamic; Hydrozoa over Corals; Crustacea +over Insecta, and Amphipoda and Isopoda over the higher Crustacea; +Cetaceans and Seals over the Primates; the civilization of the +Esquimaux over that of the European. + +"5. Pelzeln has also objected that if the later organisms have proceeded +from the earlier, the whole developmental series, from the simplest to +the highest, could not now exist; in such a case the simpler organisms +must have disappeared." + +To this Professor Kolliker replies, with perfect justice, that the +conclusion drawn by Pelzeln does not really follow from Darwin's +premisses, and that, if we take the facts of Palaeontology as they +stand, they rather support than oppose Darwin's theory. + +"6. Great weight must be attached to the objection brought forward by +Huxley, otherwise a warm supporter of Darwin's hypothesis, that we know +of no varieties which are sterile with one another, as is the rule +among sharply distinguished animal forms. + +"If Darwin is right, it must be demonstrated that forms may be produced +by selection, which, like the present sharply distinguished animal +forms, are infertile, when coupled with one another, and this has not +been done." + +The weight of this objection is obvious; but our ignorance of the +conditions of fertility and sterility, the want of carefully conducted +experiments extending over long series of years, and the strange +anomalies presented by the results of the cross-fertilization of many +plants, should all, as Mr. Darwin has urged, be taken into account in +considering it. + +The seventh objection is that we have already discussed ('supra', p. +178). + +The eighth and last stands as follows:-- + +"8. The developmental theory of Darwin is not needed to enable us to +understand the regular harmonious progress of the complete series of +organic forms from the simpler to the more perfect. + +"The existence of general laws of Nature explains this harmony, even if +we assume that all beings have arisen separately and independent of one +another. Darwin forgets that inorganic nature, in which there can be no +thought of genetic connexion of forms, exhibits the same regular plan, +the same harmony, as the organic world; and that, to cite only one +example, there is as much a natural system of minerals as of plants and +animals." + +We do not feel quite sure that we seize Professor Kolliker's meaning +here, but he appears to suggest that the observation of the general +order and harmony which pervade inorganic nature, would lead us to +anticipate a similar order and harmony in the organic world. And this +is no doubt true, but it by no means follows that the particular order +and harmony observed among them should be that which we see. Surely +the stripes of dun horses, and the teeth of the foetal 'Balaena', are +not explained by the "existence of general laws of Nature." Mr. +Darwin endeavours to explain the exact order of organic nature which +exists; not the mere fact that there is some order. + +And with regard to the existence of a natural system of minerals; the +obvious reply is that there may be a natural classification of any +objects--of stones on a sea-beach, or of works of art; a natural +classification being simply an assemblage of objects in groups, so as +to express their most important and fundamental resemblances and +differences. No doubt Mr. Darwin believes that those resemblances and +differences upon which our natural systems or classifications of +animals and plants are based, are resemblances and differences which +have been produced genetically, but we can discover no reason for +supposing that he denies the existence of natural classifications of +other kinds. + +And, after all, is it quite so certain that a genetic relation may not +underlie the classification of minerals? The inorganic world has not +always been what we see it. It has certainly had its metamorphoses, +and, very probably, a long "Entwickelungsgeschichte" out of a nebular +blastema. Who knows how far that amount of likeness among sets of +minerals, in virtue of which they are now grouped into families and +orders, may not be the expression of the common conditions to which +that particular patch of nebulous fog, which may have been constituted +by their atoms, and of which they may be, in the strictest sense, the +descendants, was subjected? + +It will be obvious from what has preceded, that we do not agree with +Professor Kolliker in thinking the objections which he brings forward +so weighty as to be fatal to Darwin's view. But even if the case were +otherwise, we should be unable to accept the "Theory of Heterogeneous +Generation" which is offered as a substitute. That theory is thus +stated:-- + +"The fundamental conception of this hypothesis is, that, under the +influence of a general law of development, the germs of organisms +produce others different from themselves. This might happen (1) by +the fecundated ova passing, in the course of their development, under +particular circumstances, into higher forms; (2) by the primitive and +later organisms producing other organisms without fecundation, out of +germs or eggs (Parthenogenesis)." + +In favour of this hypothesis, Professor Kolliker adduces the well-known +facts of Agamogenesis, or "alternate generation"; the extreme +dissimilarity of the males and females of many animals; and of the +males, females, and neuters of those insects which live in colonies: +and he defines its relations to the Darwinian theory as follows:-- + +"It is obvious that my hypothesis is apparently very similar to +Darwin's, inasmuch as I also consider that the various forms of animals +have proceeded directly from one another. My hypothesis of the +creation of organisms by heterogeneous generation, however, is +distinguished very essentially from Darwin's by the entire absence of +the principle of useful variations and their natural selection: and my +fundamental conception is this, that a great plan of development lies +at the foundation of the origin of the whole organic world, impelling +the simpler forms to more and more complex developments. How this law +operates, what influences determine the development of the eggs and +germs, and impel them to assume constantly new forms, I naturally +cannot pretend to say; but I can at least adduce the great analogy of +the alternation of generations. If a 'Bipinnaria', a 'Brachialaria', a +'Pluteus', is competent to produce the Echinoderm, which is so widely +different from it; if a hydroid polype can produce the higher Medusa; +if the vermiform Trematode 'nurse' can develop within itself the very +unlike 'Cercaria', it will not appear impossible that the egg, or +ciliated embryo, of a sponge, for once, under special conditions, might +become a hydroid polype, or the embryo of a Medusa, an Echinoderm." + +It is obvious, from these extracts, that Professor Kolliker's hypothesis +is based upon the supposed existence of a close analogy between the +phenomena of Agamogenesis and the production of new species from +pre-existing ones. But is the analogy a real one? We think that it +is not, and, by the hypothesis, cannot be. + +For what are the phenomena of Agamogenesis, stated generally? An +impregnated egg develops into an asexual form, A; this gives rise, +asexually, to a second form or forms, B, more or less different from +A. B may multiply asexually again; in the simpler cases, however, it +does not, but, acquiring sexual characters, produces impregnated eggs +from whence A, once more, arises. + +No case of Agamogenesis is known in which, 'when A differs widely from +B', it is itself capable of sexual propagation. No case whatever is +known in which the progeny of B, by sexual generation, is other than a +reproduction of A. + +But if this be a true statement of the nature of the process of +Agamogenesis, how can it enable us to comprehend the production of new +species from already existing ones? Let us suppose Hyaenas to have +preceded Dogs, and to have produced the latter in this way. Then the +Hyena will represent A, and the Dog, B. The first difficulty that +presents itself is that the Hyena must be asexual, or the process will +be wholly without analogy in the world of Agamogenesis. But passing +over this difficulty, and supposing a male and female Dog to be +produced at the same time from the Hyaena stock, the progeny of the +pair, if the analogy of the simpler kinds of Agamogenesis* is to be +followed, should be a litter, not of puppies, but of young Hyenas. For +the Agamogenetic series is always, as we have seen, A: B: A: B, etc.; +whereas, for the production of a new species, the series must be A: B: +B: B, etc. The production of new species, or genera, is the extreme +permanent divergence from the primitive stock. All known Agamogenetic +processes, on the other hand, end in a complete return to the +primitive stock. How then is the production of new species to be +rendered intelligible by the analogy of Agamogenesis? + + [footnote] * If, on the contrary, we follow the analogy of + the more complex forms of Agamogenesis, such as that + exhibited by some 'Trematoda' and by the 'Aphides', the + Hyaena must produce, asexually, a brood of asexual Dogs, + from which other sexless Dogs must proceed. At the end of a + certain number of terms of the series, the Dogs would + acquire sexes and generate young; but these young would be, + not Dogs, but Hyaenas. In fact, we have 'demonstrated', in + Agamogenetic phenomena, that inevitable recurrence to the + original type, which is 'asserted' to be true of variations + in general, by Mr. Darwin's opponents; and which, if the + assertion could be changed into a demonstration would, in + fact, be fatal to his hypothesis. + +The other alternative put by Professor Kolliker--the passage of +fecundated ova in the course of their development into higher +forms--would, if it occurred, be merely an extreme case of variation in +the Darwinian sense, greater in degree than, but perfectly similar in +kind to, that which occurred when the well-known Ancon Ram was +developed from an ordinary Ewe's ovum. Indeed we have always thought +that Mr. Darwin has unnecessarily hampered himself by adhering so +strictly to his favourite "Natura non facit saltum." We greatly +suspect that she does make considerable jumps in the way of variation +now and then, and that these saltations give rise to some of the gaps +which appear to exist in the series of known forms. + +Strongly and freely as we have ventured to disagree with Professor +Kolliker, we have always done so with regret, and we trust without +violating that respect which is due, not only to his scientific +eminence and to the careful study which he has devoted to the subject, +but to the perfect fairness of his argumentation, and the generous +appreciation of the worth of Mr. Darwin's labours which he always +displays. It would be satisfactory to be able to say as much for M. +Flourens. + +But the Perpetual Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences deals with +Mr. Darwin as the first Napoleon would have treated an "ideologue;" +and while displaying a painful weakness of logic and shallowness of +information, assumes a tone of authority, which always touches upon +the ludicrous, and sometimes passes the limits of good breeding. + +For example (p. 56):-- + +"M. Darwin continue: 'Aucune distinction absolue n'a ete et ne pout etre +etablie entre les esp_ces et les varietes.' Je vous ai deja dit que +vous vous trompiez; une distinction absolue separe les varietes d'avec +les especes." + +"Je vous ai deja dit; moi, M. le Secretaire perpetuel de l'Academie des +Sciences: et vous + +"'Qui n'etes rien, Pas meme Academicien;' + +what do you mean by asserting the contrary?" Being devoid of the +blessings of an Academy in England, we are unaccustomed to see our +ablest men treated in this fashion, even by a "Perpetual Secretary." + +Or again, considering that if there is any one quality of Mr. Darwin's +work to which friends and foes have alike borne witness, it is his +candour and fairness in admitting and discussing objections, what is to +be thought of M. Flourens' assertion, that + +"M. Darwin ne cite que les auteurs qui partagent ses opinions." (P. +40.) + +Once more (p. 65):-- + +"Enfin l'ouvrage de M. Darwin a paru. On ne peut qu'etre frappe du +talent de l'auteur. Mais que d'idees obscures, que d'idees fausses! +Quel jargon metaphysique jete mal a propos dans l'histoire naturelle, +qui tombe dans le galimatias des qu'elle sort des idees claires, des +idees justes! Quel langage pretentieux et vide! Quelles +personifications pueriles et surannees! O lucidite! O solidite de +l'esprit Francais, que devenez-vous?" + +"Obscure ideas," "metaphysical jargon," "pretentious and empty +language," "puerile and superannuated personifications." Mr. Darwin +has many and hot opponents on this side of the Channel and in Germany, +but we do not recollect to have found precisely these sins in the long +catalogue of those hitherto laid to his charge. It is worth while, +therefore, to examine into these discoveries effected solely by the +aid of the "lucidity and solidity" of the mind of M. Flourens. + +According to M. Flourens, Mr. Darwin's great error is that he has +personified Nature (p. 10), and further that he has + +"imagined a natural selection: he imagines afterwards that this power +of selection (pouvoir d'_lire) which he gives to Nature is similar to +the power of man. These two suppositions admitted, nothing stops him: +he plays with Nature as he likes, and makes her do all he pleases." +(P. 6.) + +And this is the way M. Flourens extinguishes natural selection: + +"Voyons donc encore une fois, ce qu'il peut y avoir de fonde dans ce +qu'on nomme election naturelle. + +"L'election naturelle n'est sous un autre nom que la nature. Pour un +etre organise, la nature n'est que l'organisation, ni plus ni moins. + +"Il faudra donc aussi personnifier l'organisation, et dire que +l'organisation choisit l'organisation. L'election naturelle est cette +forme substantielle dont on jouait autrefois avec tant de facilite. +Aristote disait que 'Si l'art de batir etait dans le bois, cet art +agirait comme la nature.' A la place de l'art de batir M. Darwin met +l'election naturelle, et c'est tout un: l'un n'est pas plus chimerique +que l'autre." (P.31.) + +And this is really all that M. Flourens can make of Natural Selection. +We have given the original, in fear lest a translation should be +regarded as a travesty; but with the original before the reader, we may +try to analyse the passage. "For an organized being, Nature is only +organization, neither more nor less." + +Organized beings then have absolutely no relation to inorganic nature: a +plant does not, depend on soil or sunshine, climate, depth in the +ocean, height above it; the quantity of saline matters in water have no +influence upon animal life; the substitution of carbonic acid for +oxygen in our atmosphere would hurt nobody! That these are absurdities +no one should know better than M. Flourens; but they are logical +deductions from the assertion just quoted, and from the further +statement that natural selection means only that "organization chooses +and selects organization." + +For if it be once admitted (what no sane man denies) that the chances of +life of any given organism are increased by certain conditions (A) and +diminished by their opposites (B), then it is mathematically certain +that any change of conditions in the direction of (A) will exercise a +selective influence in favour of that organism, tending to its increase +and multiplication, while any change in the direction of (B) will +exercise a selective influence against that organism, tending to its +decrease and extinction. + +Or, on the other hand, conditions remaining the same, let a given +organism vary (and no one doubts that they do vary) in two directions: +into one form (a) better fitted to cope with these conditions than the +original stock, and a second (b) less well adapted to them. Then it is +no less certain that the conditions in question must exercise a +selective influence in favour of (a) and against ( b), so that (a) will +tend to predominance, and (b) to extirpation. + +That M. Flourens should be unable to perceive the logical necessity of +these simple arguments, which lie at the foundation of all Mr. Darwin's +reasoning; that he should confound an irrefragable deduction from the +observed relations of organisms to the conditions which lie around +them, with a metaphysical "forme substantielle," or a chimerical +personification of the powers of Nature, would be incredible, were it +not that other passages of his work leave no room for doubt upon the +subject. + +"On imagine une 'election naturelle' que, pour plus de menagement, on me +dit etre inconsciente, sans s'apercevoir que le contre-sens litteral +est precisement la: 'election inconsciente'." (P. 52.) + +"J'ai deja dit ce qu'il faut penser de 'l'election naturelle'. Ou +'l'election naturelle' n'est rien, ou c'est la nature: mais la nature +douee 'd'election', mais la nature personnifiee: derniere erreur du +dernier siecle: Le xixe fait plus de personnifications." (P. 53.) + +M. Flourens cannot imagine an unconscious selection--it is for him a +contradiction in terms. Did M. Flourens ever visit one of the +prettiest watering-places of "la belle France," the Baie d'Arcachon? If +so, he will probably have passed through the district of the Landes, +and will have had an opportunity of observing the formation of "dunes" +on a grand scale. What are these "dunes"? The winds and waves of the +Bay of Biscay have not much consciousness, and yet they have with great +care "selected," from among an infinity of masses of silex of all +shapes and sizes, which have been submitted to their action, all the +grains of sand below a certain size, and have heaped them by themselves +over a great area. This sand has been "unconsciously selected" from +amidst the gravel in which it first lay with as much precision as if +man had "consciously selected" it by the aid of a sieve. Physical +Geology is full of such selections--of the picking out of the soft from +the hard, of the soluble from the insoluble, of the fusible from the +infusible, by natural agencies to which we are certainly not in the +habit of ascribing consciousness. + +But that which wind and sea are to a sandy beach, the sum of influences, +which we term the "conditions of existence," is to living organisms. +The weak are sifted out from the strong. A frosty night "selects" the +hardy plants in a plantation from among the tender ones as effectually +as if it were the wind, and they, the sand and pebbles, of our +illustration; or, on the other hand, as if the intelligence of a +gardener had been operative in cutting the weaker organisms down. The +thistle, which has spread over the Pampas, to the destruction of native +plants, has been more effectually "selected" by the unconscious +operation of natural conditions than if a thousand agriculturists had +spent their time in sowing it. + +It is one of Mr. Darwin's many great services to Biological science that +he has demonstrated the significance of these facts. He has shown +that--given variation and given change of conditions--the inevitable +result is the exercise of such an influence upon organisms that one is +helped and another is impeded; one tends to predominate, another to +disappear; and thus the living world bears within itself, and is +surrounded by, impulses towards incessant change. + +But the truths just stated are as certain as any other physical laws, +quite independently of the truth, or falsehood, of the hypothesis which +Mr. Darwin has based upon them; and that M. Flourens, missing the +substance and grasping at a shadow, should be blind to the admirable +exposition of them, which Mr. Darwin has given, and see nothing there +but a "derniere erreur du dernier siecle "--a personification of +Nature--leads us indeed to cry with him: "O lucidite! O solidite de +l'esprit Francais, que devenez-vous?" + +M. Flourens has, in fact, utterly failed to comprehend the first +principles of the doctrine which he assails so rudely. His objections +to details are of the old sort, so battered and hackneyed on this side +of the Channel, that not even a Quarterly Reviewer could be induced to +pick them up for the purpose of pelting Mr. Darwin over again. We have +Cuvier and the mummies; M. Roulin and the domesticated animals of +America; the difficulties presented by hybridism and by Palaeontology; +Darwinism a 'rifacciamento' of De Maillet and Lamarck; Darwinism a +system without a commencement, and its author bound to believe in M. +Pouchet, etc. etc. How one knows it all by heart, and with what relief +one reads at p. 65-- + +"Je laisse M. Darwin!" + +But we cannot leave M. Flourens without calling our readers' attention +to his wonderful tenth chapter, "De la Preexistence des Germes et de +l'Epigenese," which opens thus:-- + +"Spontaneous generation is only a chimaera. This point established, +two hypotheses remain: that of 'pre-existence' and that of +'epigenesis'. The one of these hypotheses has as little foundation as +the other." (P. 163.) + +"The doctrine of 'epigenesis' is derived from Harvey: following by +ocular inspection the development of the new being in the Windsor does, +he saw each part appear successively, and taking the moment of +'appearance' for the moment of 'formation' he imagined 'epigenesis'." +(P. 165.) + +On the contrary, says M. Flourens (p. 167), + +"The new being is formed at a stroke ('tout d'un coup') as a whole, +instantaneously; it is not formed part by part, and at different times. +It is formed at once at the single 'individual' moment at which the +conjunction of the male and female elements takes place." + +It will be observed that M. Flourens uses language which cannot be +mistaken. For him, the labours of von Baer, of Rathke, of Coste, and +their contemporaries and successors in Germany, France, and England, +are non-existent: and, as Darwin "imagina" natural selection, so Harvey +" imagina" that doctrine which gives him an even greater claim to the +veneration of posterity than his better known discovery of the +circulation of the blood. + +Language such as that we have quoted is, in fact, so preposterous, so +utterly incompatible with anything but absolute ignorance of some of +the best established facts, that we should have passed it over in +silence had it not appeared to afford some clue to M. Flourens' +unhesitating, 'a priori', repudiation of all forms of the doctrine of +progressive modification of living beings. He whose mind remains +uninfluenced by an acquaintance with the phenomena of development, must +indeed lack one of the chief motives towards the endeavour to trace a +genetic relation between the different existing forms of life. Those +who are ignorant of Geology, find no difficulty in believing that the +world was made as it is; and the shepherd, untutored in history, sees +no reason to regard the green mounds which indicate the site of a Roman +camp, as aught but part and parcel of the primeval hill-side. So M. +Flourens, who believes that embryos are formed "tout d'un coup," +naturally finds no difficulty in conceiving that species came into +existence in the same way. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Criticisms on "The Origin of Species" + |