DARWINISM TODAY
A DISCUSSION OF PRESENT-DAY SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM
OF THE DARWINIAN SELECTION THEORIES,
TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE
PRINCIPAL OTHER PROPOSED
AUXILIARY AND ALTERNATIVE
THEORIES OF SPECIES-FORMING
BY
VERNON L. KELLOGG
PROFESSOR IN LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
NEW YORK: HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Published August, 1907
PREFACE. <...> THIS book is written for the sake of presenting
simply and concisely to students of biology and to general
readers the present-day standing of Darwinism in
biological science, and to outline for them the various
auxiliary and alternative theories of species-forming
which have been proposed to aid or to replace the
selection theories. <...> Our actual knowledge of the factors and
mechanism of organic evolution and our hypotheses and
theories which serve to fill in the present gaps in this
knowledge have been greatly added to and modified in the
last few years. <...> Much that the general reader includes in his
conception of organic evolution, based on his reading of
Darwin and Wallace and Spencer, has been materially
modified and some of it proved untenable by modern
investigation; while much which had no place in this
earlier general understanding of evolutionary method and
process may now be confidently added to it. <...> Precisely at the
present moment is this modification of the general point of
view and attitude of philosophical biologists unusually
important and far-reaching in its relation to certain longheld general conceptions of biology and evolution. <...> This
modification of the general trend of evolutionary thought
1
must also necessarily strongly affect our conceptions of
the underlying principles of such correlated sciences as
sociology, pedagogy, etc. <...> These notes also enable the author to introduce into the
book some details of his own observations and
experiments touching various evolutionary subjects.
2
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY: THE "DEATH-BED
OF DARWINISM." .............................................................4
CHAPTER II. <...> OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING AND DESCENT (CONTINUED) :
THEORIES ALTERNATIVE TO SELECTION. ...............250
CHAPTER X. OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING AND DESCENT <...>
Darwinism_today.pdf
DARWINISM TODAY
A DISCUSSION OF PRESENT-DAY SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM
OF THE DARWINIAN SELECTION THEORIES,
TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE
PRINCIPAL OTHER PROPOSED
AUXILIARY AND ALTERNATIVE
THEORIES OF SPECIES-FORMING
BY
VERNON L. KELLOGG
PROFESSOR IN LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
NEW YORK: HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Published August, 1907
Стр.1
PREFACE.
simply and concisely to students of biology and to general
readers
present-day
standing
of
biological science, and to outline for them the various
auxiliary and alternative
THIS book is written for the sake of presenting
the
Darwinism in
theories of species-forming
which have been proposed to aid or to replace the
selection theories.
Our actual knowledge of the factors and
mechanism of organic evolution and our hypotheses and
theories which serve to fill in the present gaps in this
knowledge have been greatly added to and modified in the
last few years. Much that the general reader includes in his
conception of organic evolution, based on his reading of
Darwin and Wallace and Spencer, has been materially
modified and some of it proved untenable by modern
investigation; while much which had no place in this
earlier general understanding of evolutionary method and
process may now be confidently added to it. The present
time is one of unprecedented activity and fertility both in
the discovery of facts and in attempts to perceive their
significance
in
relation
to the
great problems of
bionomics. Both destructive criticism of old, and synthesis
of new hypotheses and theories, are being so energetically
carried forward that the scientific layman and educated
reader, if he stand but ever so little outside of the actual
working ranks of biology, is likely to lose his orientation
as to the trend of evolutionary advance. Precisely at the
present moment is this modification of the general point of
view and attitude of philosophical biologists unusually
important and far-reaching in its relation to certain longheld
general conceptions of biology and evolution. This
modification of the general trend of evolutionary thought
1
Стр.2
must also necessarily strongly affect our conceptions of
the underlying principles of such correlated sciences as
sociology, pedagogy, etc. It is, then, as a means of
orientation in evolutionary matters for the general reader
and for the unspecialised but interested student of science
that this book is prepared.
That it may not be without some special usefulness
to more advanced students and biological workers there
are added, in appendices to the chapters, special notes
(referred to in the text by small super-numbers) in which
are given numerous exact references to general or special
books or papers, and accounts, in more or less detail, of
particular
observations, experiments, or theoretical
discussions, as well as references to extended
bibliographic lists of the subjects under treatment. These
notes will enable students, or others interested, to look up
the original sources of our knowledge of the subjects of
the various chapters, and to find more detailed general or
special discussions of them than can be given in this book.
These notes also enable the author to introduce into the
book
some
details
of his own observations and
experiments touching various evolutionary subjects.
2
Стр.3
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY: THE "DEATH-BED
OF DARWINISM." .............................................................4
CHAPTER II. DARWINISM AND EVOLUTION
DEFINED AND DISTINGUISHED. ..................................13
CHAPTER III. DARWINISM ATTACKED. .....................29
CHAPTER iV. DARWINISM ATTACKED
(CONTINUED): THE THEORY OF SEXUAL
SELECTION........................................................................76
CHAPTER V. DARWINISM DEFENDED........................101
CHAPTER
VI.
DARWINISM
DEFENDED
(CONTINUED) : PLATE'S CONCILIATORY
DEFENCE............................................................................139
CHAPTER VII. OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING
AND DESCENT: THEORIES AUXILIARY
TO SELECTION..................................................................163
CHAPTER VIII. OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING
AND DESCENT (CONTINUED) :
AUXILIARY THEORIES (CONTINUED). .......................216
CHAPTER IX. OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING
AND DESCENT (CONTINUED) :
THEORIES ALTERNATIVE TO SELECTION. ...............250
CHAPTER X. OTHER THEORIES OF SPECIESFORMING
AND DESCENT ( CONTINUED ) :
ALTERNATIVE THEORIES (CONTINUED)...................331
CHAPTER XI. DARWINISM'S PRESENT STANDING..386
3
Стр.4
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY: THE "DEATH-BED OF
DARWINISM."
"VOM STERBELAGER DES DARWINISMUS!" This is
the title of a recent pamphlet lying before me. But ever
since
there
has been Darwinism there have
been
occasional deathbeds of Darwinism on title pages of
pamphlets, addresses, and sermons. Much more worth
consideration than any clerical pamphlets or dissertations,
under this title, by frisch-gebacrenen German doctors of
philosophy — the title alone proving prejudice or lack of
judgment or of knowledge — are the numerous books and
papers which, with less sensational headlines but infinitely
more important contents, are appearing now in such
numbers and from such a variety of reputable sources as to
reveal the existence among biologists and philosophers of
a widespread belief in the marked weakening, at least, if
not serious indisposition, of Darwinism. A few of these
books and papers from scientific sources even suggest that
their writers see shadows of a death-bed.
The present extraordinary activity in biology is
two-phased ; there is going on a most careful reexamination
or scrutiny of the theories connected with
organic evolution,resulting in much destructive criticism
of certain long-cherished and widely held beliefs, and at
the same time there are being developed and almost
feverishly
driven forward certain fascinating
and
fundamentally important new lines, employing new
methods,of biological investigation. Conspicuous among
these new kinds of work are the statistical or quantitative
study of variations and that most alluring work variously
called developmental mechanics, experimental
morphology, experimental physiology of development, or,
4
Стр.5