New-York tribune., 1874-05-04
THE DARWINIAN DISCUSSION

tributions to the discussion OF the develop
ment theory. They approach the subject troln
widely different points of view, and tehd W
precisely opposite conclusions. On the ono
hand the Rev. Dr. George Is. Checver
makes an Attack on Darwinslm In the Inl
panoply of Gospel armor. and with the usual
weapons of polemic warfare; on the other
correspondent who has visited Prof D. Z.
Marsh of New-IIaven gives an account OF
remarkable series of discover'..,S which seem
to Indicate the a"oestry of the horse and tho
gradual development of that animal from a
! remote progenitOr in distant geologic eras
| The two extremes of this argument are 50
widely separated that they have little or
nothing in common; and the reader who il
imbued with the spirit of the one is not likely
to be convinced by the other. The man OF
scientific training in his habits OF Thought IL
not likely to be moved from the convictions
which the evidence of fossil remains conveys
TO him, by DIR. Cheevers dennnciat0n
of the impety of such belief, nor
even by demonstration that 1t Is tantamount
10 atheism. For to such an inquirer 1t Is not
religion nor religious belief that Is in qncs-
ton; he simply asks the issue of the material
facts, cOntented, withers0ever they may lead
him, in the hope that he is following the truth.
On the other hand, the words of DR.. Cheeyer
doubtless echo the disgust and horror with which
n large and influential section of the cOmmu-
nifty regard theory which they conceive to be
at war with their purest instincts and their
highest faith.
II cannot be concealed that the number OF
eminent men who in this great conflict attack
l.. l.,
upon purely scientific grounds is comparatively
small and it suffered notable loss in the death
of Prof Agassiz. Perhaps the only opponent
now left in America whom the believers in evolu-
ton consider worthy Of their steel is Prof Darwin
of Montreal What Prof. Agassiz might have
done if his life had been spared, can of course
only be a matter of conjecture. We cannot re-
construct a statue as the anatOmist can
skeleton, from few fragments of bone; and in
what Prof. Agassiz has left, there is little moro
than the pedestal and perhaps the feet of tho
image which he had in mind. Yet it is well
known that ardent as was his opposition to
the theories of Darwin, his own belief as to
the origin of man included the creation Of
several distinct races, and was not compatible
with the usual formula of evangelical faith
as to the origin of the human species.
Under these circumstances it is interest
ing to know how Prof. Agassz regarded these
discoveries, in which Prof Marsh has had SO
large a share. In a conversation with the
great naturalist on Penikese Island, last year,
when tho more complete results of these
researches were as yet dimly foreshadowed,
he said, while expressing his warm
personal friendship and admiration for
the labors of Prof. Marsh: He seems
"tO me like q man who has only one
"page of o book before him. He has torn
"out the leaf of the Tertiary formation and
"from it he would deduce the whole Tho
"book of Nature is too large to be learned
from fragment"
Bearing this criticism in mind, it must yet DO
admitted that the chain of argument in regard
to the gcnealogy of the horse is strikingly in
teresting. From the lowest depths of strata d
mile in thickness, the remains are exhumed Of
animals more like horses than like any other
living creatures, but small in size,
having four toes to the fore feet and
three to the hind all touching tho
ground. Higher up in the formation are
found larger animals, similar in other respects,
but having only three toes touching the
ground, the middle one much enlarged. Still
higher in these dep0its are similar three-toed
animals, still larger, with only one toe reach
ing the ground. Near the top of the forma-
ton not only does the likeness to the modern
horse grow apparent but the distinction
becomes imperceptible. There are also
similar changes in the head and
neck of these animals; they become gradually
elongated The teeth and the jaws undergo
successive changes, equally marked. Admit
the theory proposed, and there is a ready ex-
planation for most of these changes in tho
needs of the animal for strength and heetneSs
in the struggle for existence.
But after we have the whole story. some
strange and as yet unanswerable questions re-
main. The horse existed all over this hem-
sphere. His fossil remains have been dug out
of the cliffs of Escholtz's Bay, in Alaska, and
out of caves in Brazil, where he was cotem-
porary with the megatherium, and yet no
trace of him is found coeval with
man till tho Spaniards brought him from
Europe early in the sixteenth century.
Modern theories of geology do not admit
the notion of vast catacy ysms by which tho
races of continent could be swept away;
and thus the utter disappearance of all equine
forms seems as yet almost inexpicable. But
this Is always q consequence of scientific in
vestigations no sooner is one great difficulty
surmOunted than another and another is pre-
sented. To the student of nature as well as
to the poet "Hills peep Ger hills, and alps
on alps arise"
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Tho Pav nr Iiirnthal of Sanduskv the JcNish