The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-01-02
Agassiz on Darwinism.

Professor Agassiz has long been
known as an unbeliever in Darwinism,
and the uncompromising enunciation of
his views which is to appear in the JAN
uary Atlantic, although it defines his
position more clearly, will surprise no
student of his works. In this essay
Professor Agassiz gave a synopsis of his
reasons for not holding the Darwinian
doctrines, preparatory to more de-
tailed statement which he intended to
make in future numbers of the maya
zine. This sketch the great naturalist
viii never complete, and to it's 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.
It b gins by saying that "The law
of evolution, so far as its working is
understood, is law controlling devel-
opment and keeping types within ap-
pointed cycles of growth, which revolve
forever upon themselves, returning at
appointed intervals to the same starting
point and repeating through a success
sion of phases the same course. These
cycles have never been known to oscil-
late or to pass into each other indeed,
the only structural difference known be-
tween individuals of the same stock are
monstrosities or peculiarities pertaining
to sex, and the latter are as abiding
and permanent as type itself" His
next assertion is that no primary divi-
sion of the animal kingdom will stand
which will not bear the test applied by
Cuvier to his four great groups, Radi-
ate, Mollusks, Articulates, and Verte-
brates that is to say, the test of a
distinct plan of structure for each.
The article then briefly reviews the
different books published by Darwin,
and says that the " Pangenesis " in
which the whole theory is summarized,
A" does not prove more conclusively
what was already known-namely, that
all domesticated animals and Guilt
waited plants are traceable to distinct
species, and that the domesticated
pigeons which furnish SO large por-
ton of the illustration are, notwith-
standing their great diversity under
special treatment, no exception to this
rule" The review closes with the asser-
ton that the greater part of the argu-
ment, both with Darwin and his follow
ers is purely negative, and rests partly
upon the assumption that Sin the sue
cession of ages, just those transition
types have dropped out from the geo.
logical record which would have proved
the Darwiniar conclusions, had these
types been preserved, and that, in the
living animal, the process of transition
is too subtitle for detection, thus throw
ing off the responsibility of proof with
respect to embryonic growth and geo.
logical succession"
Concerning the famous discovery"
made by Lowaleysky of the presence in
the Ascidians of a string of cells was
previously known to naturalists, and
that he himself had intended to say
something of their nature and position
had he not been anticipated by Won
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 Ascidi
ans, and that their development has no
true homology with that of the Verte-
brates. ''To say that the first Verte-
brates or their pTogenitors carried their
backbones in this manner" said profes-
sor Agassiz, sis about as reasonable as
to say that they walked on their heads. "
The doctrine of Haeckel, that star
fishes are compound animals, made up,
as it were, of worm-like beings, united
like rays in one organism, a doctrine
which, if true, would establish a tran
sition from Radiates to Articulates, is
pronounced to be all assumption, with
out foundation in the structure of the
starfsh. The arms of these animals
being made up of the same parts as the
vertical zones of all Radiates, and ar
ranged around vertical axis, can not
be compared to those of any Articulate,
in which class the parts are arranged
along longitudinal axis.
The topics of metamorphosis, heredi-
tary and natural succession, are very
briefly considered, and the article closes
with consideration of the geological
side of the question, in which ground is
taken against the theory of transmits
sion, since the whole history of geolog-
ical succession shows that the lowest
in structure is by no means earliest in
time, and since, therefore, it may be
said that great diversity of types has
existed from the beginning.