Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-01-02
AgAsslZ on DarWlnIsm.

PRoF. AGAssIZ has long been known
as an unbeliever in DaTwinism, and the un-
compromising enunciation of his views,
which is to appear in the January 1tldn-
tic, although 1t defines his position more
clearly, will surprise no student of his
works. In this essay, Professor Agassiz
gave O synopsis of his reasons for not
holding the Darwiniau doctrines, prepare
tory to more detailed statement which
he intended to make in future numbers of
the magazine. This sketch the great
naturalist will never complete, and to its
scientific value is added the melancholy
interest of being the last finished work
from the hand to which the students and
lovers of natural science owe so much.
1t begins by saying that "The law of
evolution, so far as its working is under.
stood, is law controlling DEVELOPMENT
and keeping types within appointed
cycles of growth, which revolve forever
upon themselves, returning at appointed
intervals to the same startng-point, and
repeating through succession of phases
the same course. These cycles have
never been known to oscillate or to pass
into each other; indeed, the only struc.
tural difference known between individ.
uals of the same stock are monstrosities.
or peculiarities pertaining to sex, and the
latter are rs abiding and permanent as
type itself" His next assertion is that
no primary division Of the animal king
dom will stand which will not bear the
test applied by Cuvier to his four great
groups, Radiate, Mollusks, Articulates
and Vertebrates; that is to say, the test of
distinct plan of structure for each.
The article then briefly reviews the
different books published by Darwin, and
says that "Pangenesis" in which the
whole theory is summarized, "does but
prove more conclusively what was already
known-namely, that all domesticated
animals and cultivated plants are tracea-
BILE to distinct species, and that the do
nesticated pigeons which furnish so
large a portion of the illustration are.
notwithstanding their great diversity un.
der special treatment, no exception to
this rule" The review closes with the
assertion that the greater part of the ar
gument both with Darwin and his fol
lowers, is purely negative, and rests partly
upon the assumption that, "in the sue
cession of ages, just those transition
types have dropped out from the geologi.
cal record which would have proved the
Darwinian conclusions, had these types
been preserved, and that, in the living
animal, the process of transition is too
subtle for detection, thus throwing off the
responsibility Of proof with respect to
embryonic growth and geological success
sion"
Concerning the famous "discovery"
made by kowalevsky, of the presence in
the Ascidians of string of cells CORE
spending to the dorsal cord in Vertebrates,
the article says that the existence of this
string OF cells was previously known to
naturalists, and that he himself had in
tended to say something of their nature
ana position had he not been anticipated
by Yon Baer, who has recently published
pamphlet upon the development of the
Ascidians as compared with the Verte-
brates, in which pamphlet he shows that
the string of cells runs along the ventral
side OF the body of the Ascidians, and
that their development has no true homol-
ogy with that OF the Vertebrates. ITO
say that the first Vertebrates or their pro
genltors carried their backbones in this
manner" said Professor Agassiz, ais
about as reasonable as to say that they
walked on their heads"
The doctrine of H@ckel, that starfshes
are compound animals, made up, as If
were, of worm-like beings, united like
rays in one organism, doctrine which,
If true, would establish transition from
hadiales to Articulates, is pronounced to
be all assumption, without foundation in
the structure of the starfish. The arms
OF these animals being made up of the
same parts as the vertical zones of all Ra-
dates, and arranged around vertical
axis, cannot be compared to those of any
Artlculate, in which class the parts are
arranged along a longitudinal axis.
Inc topics of metamorphosis, heredi-
tary and natural succession, are very
briefly considered, and the article closes
with a consideration of the geological side
OF the question, in which ground is taken
against the theory of transmission, since
the whole history of geological success
sion shows that the lowest in structure is
by no means earliest in time, and since,
therefore, it may be said that great di-
versity Of types has existed from the be.
ginning,-BoStOn Globe.