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ESSAYS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF CHARLES DARWIN AND OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"
ESSAYS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF CHARLES DARWIN AND OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES"
"My success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these, the most important have been—the love of science—unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject—industry in observing and collecting facts—and a fair share of invention as well as of common sense. With such moderate abilities as I possess, it is truly surprising that I should have influenced to a considerabl
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PREFACE
PREFACE
At the suggestion of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, the Syndics of the University Press decided in March, 1908, to arrange for the publication of a series of Essays in commemoration of the Centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the Fiftieth anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species". The preliminary arrangements were made by a committee consisting of the following representatives of the Council of the Philosophical Society and of the Press Syndicate: Dr H.K. Anderso
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1809:
1809:
Charles Darwin born at Shrewsbury, February 12. 1817: "At 8 1/2 years old I went to Mr Case's school." (A day-school at Shrewsbury kept by the Rev G. Case, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel.) 1818: "I was at school at Shrewsbury under a great scholar, Dr Butler; I learnt absolutely nothing, except by amusing myself by reading and experimenting in Chemistry." 1825: "As I was doing no good at school, my father wisely took me away at a rather earlier age than usual, and sent me (Oct. 1825) to Edinbu
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I. INTRODUCTORY LETTER From Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, O.M., G.C.S.I., C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., ETC.
I. INTRODUCTORY LETTER From Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, O.M., G.C.S.I., C.B., M.D., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., ETC.
The Camp, near Sunningdale, January 15, 1909. Dear Professor Seward, The publication of a Series of Essays in Commemoration of the century of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species" is assuredly welcome and is a subject of congratulation to all students of Science. These Essays on the progress of Science and Philosophy as affected by Darwin's labours have been written by men known for their ability to discuss the problems which he
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Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen.
Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen.
In seeking to discover Darwin's relation to his predecessors it is useful to distinguish the various services which he rendered to the theory of organic evolution. (I) As everyone knows, the general idea of the Doctrine of Descent is that the plants and animals of the present-day are the lineal descendants of ancestors on the whole somewhat simpler, that these again are descended from yet simpler forms, and so on backwards towards the literal "Protozoa" and "Protophyta" about which we unfortunat
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Professor of Zoology in the University of Freiburg (Baden).
Professor of Zoology in the University of Freiburg (Baden).
I. THE IDEA OF SELECTION. Many and diverse were the discoveries made by Charles Darwin in the course of a long and strenuous life, but none of them has had so far-reaching an influence on the science and thought of his time as the theory of selection. I do not believe that the theory of evolution would have made its way so easily and so quickly after Darwin took up the cudgels in favour of it, if he had not been able to support it by a principle which was capable of solving, in a simple manner,
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Professor of Botany in the University of Amsterdam.
Professor of Botany in the University of Amsterdam.
I. DIFFERENT KINDS OF VARIABILITY. Before Darwin, little was known concerning the phenomena of variability. The fact, that hardly two leaves on a tree were exactly the same, could not escape observation: small deviations of the same kind were met with everywhere, among individuals as well as among the organs of the same plant. Larger aberrations, spoken of as monstrosities, were for a long time regarded as lying outside the range of ordinary phenomena. A special branch of inquiry, that of Terato
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Professor of Biology in the University of Cambridge.
Professor of Biology in the University of Cambridge.
Darwin's work has the property of greatness in that it may be admired from more aspects than one. For some the perception of the principle of Natural Selection stands out as his most wonderful achievement to which all the rest is subordinate. Others, among whom I would range myself, look up to him rather as the first who plainly distinguished, collected, and comprehensively studied that new class of evidence from which hereafter a true understanding of the process of Evolution may be developed.
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Professor of Botany in the University of Bonn.
Professor of Botany in the University of Bonn.
Since 1875 an unexpected insight has been gained into the internal structure of cells. Those who are familiar with the results of investigations in this branch of Science are convinced that any modern theory of heredity must rest on a basis of cytology and cannot be at variance with cytological facts. Many histological discoveries, both such as have been proved correct and others which may be accepted as probably well founded, have acquired a fundamental importance from the point of view of the
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Professor of Anatomy in the University of Strassburg.
Professor of Anatomy in the University of Strassburg.
The problem of the origin of the human race, of the descent of man, is ranked by Huxley in his epoch-making book "Man's Place in Nature", as the deepest with which biology has to concern itself, "the question of questions,"—the problem which underlies all others. In the same brilliant and lucid exposition, which appeared in 1863, soon after the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species", Huxley stated his own views in regard to this great problem. He tells us how the idea of a natural descent o
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Professor of Zoology in the University of Jena.
Professor of Zoology in the University of Jena.
The great advance that anthropology has made in the second half of the nineteenth century is due in the first place, to Darwin's discovery of the origin of man. No other problem in the whole field of research is so momentous as that of "Man's place in nature," which was justly described by Huxley (1863) as the most fundamental of all questions. Yet the scientific solution of this problem was impossible until the theory of descent had been established. It is now a hundred years since the great Fr
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Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of Cambridge.
Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of Cambridge.
The publication of "The Origin of Species" ushered in a new era in the study of Embryology. Whereas, before the year 1859 the facts of anatomy and development were loosely held together by the theory of types, which owed its origin to the great anatomists of the preceding generation, to Cuvier, L. Agassiz, J. Muller, and R. Owen, they were now combined together into one organic whole by the theory of descent and by the hypothesis of recapitulation which was deduced from that theory. The view (Fi
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Professor of Geology in the University of Princeton, U.S.A.
Professor of Geology in the University of Princeton, U.S.A.
I. ANIMALS. To no branch of science did the publication of "The Origin of Species" prove to be a more vivifying and transforming influence than to Palaeontology. This science had suffered, and to some extent, still suffers from its rather anomalous position between geology and biology, each of which makes claim to its territory, and it was held in strict bondage to the Linnean and Cuvierian dogma that species were immutable entities. There is, however, reason to maintain that this strict bondage
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President of the Linnean Society.
President of the Linnean Society.
II. PLANTS. There are several points of view from which the subject of the present essay may be regarded. We may consider the fossil record of plants in its bearing: I. on the truth of the doctrine of Evolution; II. on Phylogeny, or the course of Evolution; III. on the theory of Natural Selection. The remarks which follow, illustrating certain aspects only of an extensive subject, may conveniently be grouped under these three headings. I. THE TRUTH OF EVOLUTION. When "The Origin of Species" was
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Professor of Botany in the University of Heidelberg.
Professor of Botany in the University of Heidelberg.
The dependence of plants on their environment became the object of scientific research when the phenomena of life were first investigated and physiology took its place as a special branch of science. This occurred in the course of the eighteenth century as the result of the pioneer work of Hales, Duhamel, Ingenhousz, Senebier and others. In the nineteenth century, particularly in the second half, physiology experienced an unprecedented development in that it began to concern itself with the expe
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XIV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON ANIMALS. By Jacques Loeb, M.D. Professor of Physiology in the University of California.
XIV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON ANIMALS. By Jacques Loeb, M.D. Professor of Physiology in the University of California.
I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. What the biologist calls the natural environment of an animal is from a physical point of view a rather rigid combination of definite forces. It is obvious that by a purposeful and systematic variation of these and by the application of other forces in the laboratory, results must be obtainable which do not appear in the natural environment. This is the reasoning underlying the modern development of the study of the effects of environment upon animal life. It was perhaps
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Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford.
Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford.
INTRODUCTION. The following pages have been written almost entirely from the historical stand-point. Their principal object has been to give some account of the impressions produced on the mind of Darwin and his great compeer Wallace by various difficult problems suggested by the colours of living nature. In order to render the brief summary of Darwin's thoughts and opinions on the subject in any way complete, it was found necessary to say again much that has often been said before. No attempt h
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XVI. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. By Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., C.I.E. Sc.D., F.R.S.
XVI. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. By Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., C.I.E. Sc.D., F.R.S.
The publication of "The Origin of Species" placed the study of Botanical Geography on an entirely new basis. It is only necessary to study the monumental "Geographie Botanique raisonnee" of Alphonse De Candolle, published four years earlier (1855), to realise how profound and far-reaching was the change. After a masterly and exhaustive discussion of all available data De Candolle in his final conclusions could only arrive at a deadlock. It is sufficient to quote a few sentences:— "L'opinion de L
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Strickland Curator and Lecturer on Zoology in the University of Cambridge.
Strickland Curator and Lecturer on Zoology in the University of Cambridge.
The first general ideas about geographical distribution may be found in some of the brilliant speculations contained in Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle". The first special treatise on the subject was however written in 1777 by E.A.W. Zimmermann, Professor of Natural Science at Brunswick, whose large volume, "Specimen Zoologiae Geographicae Quadrupedum"..., deals in a statistical way with the mammals; important features of the large accompanying map of the world are the ranges of mountains and the n
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XVIII. DARWIN AND GEOLOGY. By J.W. Judd, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.
XVIII. DARWIN AND GEOLOGY. By J.W. Judd, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.
(Mr Francis Darwin has related how his father occasionally came up from Down to spend a few days with his brother Erasmus in London, and, after his brother's death, with his daughter, Mrs Litchfield. On these occasions, it was his habit to arrange meetings with Huxley, to talk over zoological questions, with Hooker, to discuss botanical problems, and with Lyell to hold conversations on geology. After the death of Lyell, Darwin, knowing my close intimacy with his friend during his later years, us
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Honorary Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
Honorary Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.
My father's interest in plants was of two kinds, which may be roughly distinguished as EVOLUTIONARY and PHYSIOLOGICAL. Thus in his purely evolutionary work, for instance in "The Origin of Species" and in his book on "Variation under Domestication", plants as well as animals served as material for his generalisations. He was largely dependent on the work of others for the facts used in the evolutionary work, and despised himself for belonging to the "blessed gang" of compilers. And he correspondi
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Professor of Botany in the University of Munich.
Professor of Botany in the University of Munich.
There is scarcely any subject to which Darwin devoted so much time and work as to his researches into the biology of flowers, or, in other words, to the consideration of the question to what extent the structural and physiological characters of flowers are correlated with their function of producing fruits and seeds. We know from his own words what fascination these studies possessed for him. We repeatedly find, for example, in his letters expressions such as this:—"Nothing in my life has ever i
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XXI. MENTAL FACTORS IN EVOLUTION. By C. Lloyd Morgan, LL.D., F.R.S.
XXI. MENTAL FACTORS IN EVOLUTION. By C. Lloyd Morgan, LL.D., F.R.S.
In developing his conception of organic evolution Charles Darwin was of necessity brought into contact with some of the problems of mental evolution. In "The Origin of Species" he devoted a chapter to "the diversities of instinct and of the other mental faculties in animals of the same class." ("Origin of Species" (6th edition), page 205.) When he passed to the detailed consideration of "The Descent of Man", it was part of his object to show "that there is no fundamental difference between man a
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Professor of Philosophy in the University of Copenhagen.
Professor of Philosophy in the University of Copenhagen.
I. It is difficult to draw a sharp line between philosophy and natural science. The naturalist who introduces a new principle, or demonstrates a fact which throws a new light on existence, not only renders an important service to philosophy but is himself a philosopher in the broader sense of the word. The aim of philosophy in the stricter sense is to attain points of view from which the fundamental phenomena and the principles of the special sciences can be seen in their relative importance and
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Professor of Social Philosophy in the University of Toulouse and Deputy-Professor at the Sorbonne, Paris.
Professor of Social Philosophy in the University of Toulouse and Deputy-Professor at the Sorbonne, Paris.
How has our conception of social phenomena, and of their history, been affected by Darwin's conception of Nature and the laws of its transformations? To what extent and in what particular respects have the discoveries and hypotheses of the author of "The Origin of Species" aided the efforts of those who have sought to construct a science of society? To such a question it is certainly not easy to give any brief or precise answer. We find traces of Darwinism almost everywhere. Sociological systems
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XXIV. THE INFLUENCE OF DARWIN UPON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. By P.N. Waggett, M.A., S.S.J.E.
XXIV. THE INFLUENCE OF DARWIN UPON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. By P.N. Waggett, M.A., S.S.J.E.
I. The object of this paper is first to point out certain elements of the Darwinian influence upon Religious thought, and then to show reason for the conclusion that it has been, from a Christian point of view, satisfactory. I shall not proceed further to urge that the Christian apologetic in relation to biology has been successful. A variety of opinions may be held on this question, without disturbing the conclusion that the movements of readjustment have been beneficial to those who remain Chr
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Hon. D.Litt. (Durham), Hon. LL.D. (Aberdeen), Staff Lecturer and sometime Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge.
Hon. D.Litt. (Durham), Hon. LL.D. (Aberdeen), Staff Lecturer and sometime Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge.
Corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute. The title of my paper might well have been "the creation by Darwinism of the scientific study of Religions," but that I feared to mar my tribute to a great name by any shadow of exaggeration. Before the publication of "The Origin of Species" and "The Descent of Man", even in the eighteenth century, isolated thinkers, notably Hume and Herder, had conjectured that the orthodox beliefs of their own day were developments from the cruder su
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Reader in Comparative Philology in the University of Cambridge.
Reader in Comparative Philology in the University of Cambridge.
In no study has the historical method had a more salutary influence than in the Science of Language. Even the earliest records show that the meaning of the names of persons, places, and common objects was then, as it has always been since, a matter of interest to mankind. And in every age the common man has regarded himself as competent without special training to explain by inspection (if one may use a mathematical phrase) the meaning of any words that attracted his attention. Out of this amate
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Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge.
Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge.
1. Evolution, and the principles associated with the Darwinian theory, could not fail to exert a considerable influence on the studies connected with the history of civilised man. The speculations which are known as "philosophy of history," as well as the sciences of anthropology, ethnography, and sociology (sciences which though they stand on their own feet are for the historian auxiliary), have been deeply affected by these principles. Historiographers, indeed, have with few exceptions made li
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Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy in the University of Cambridge.
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy in the University of Cambridge.
In ordinary speech a system of any sort is said to be stable when it cannot be upset easily, but the meaning attached to the word is usually somewhat vague. It is hardly surprising that this should be the case, when it is only within the last thirty years, and principally through the investigations of M. Poincare, that the conception of stability has, even for physicists, assumed a definiteness and clearness in which it was previously lacking. The laws which govern stability hold good in regions
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Trinity College, Cambridge.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
The idea of evolution in the organic world, made intelligible by the work of Charles Darwin, has little in common with the recent conception of change in certain types of matter. The discovery that a process of disintegration may take place in some at least of the chemical atoms, previously believed to be indestructible and unalterable, has modified our view of the physical universe, even as Darwin's scheme of the mode of evolution changed the trend of thought concerning the organic world. Both
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