The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-01-20

D IN the course OF which he tell IN With the
!: iacts which suggested his theory Of the
. origin Of the species. On his return to
England, In 1857, Mr.. Darwin began pa
tienllY % collect Ill facts bearing on sthe
problem, "How Is organic evolution
: effected 2" Only alter seven years Of un.
Z RENTING labor did he 90 even so far
! as to commit 10 manuscript q brief sketch
] Of bis conclusions, which he showed
] TO Sir Charles Lyell and Dr.. Hooker.
Only after fifteen years Of assiduous
J work, In lestingst the weak and strong
'lFolnts dfilfia theofy, did be gEyeit pub-
I Iiicity.. And Il remains Tact that 10
J this day the objections 10 that theory are
! noWhere-not even In Mr.. Miyart's work
rl-s0 strongly stated as In chapters 60 OF
n DArwin's own work, where they are con.
! clusively answered. In 1858, Mr.. Wal.
lace, who was studying the natural his
tory Of the Malay Archipelago, had
. arrived at the same conclusions, and sent
Mr.. Darwin an essay on the subject,
which was published that year 10 the
Journal Of the Llnpen Society Lyell
and Hooker now urged Darwin 70 pub.
! lish bis own statement, and In 1859 the
Origin Of Species was publiahedA Your
correspondtnt# may supplement- llr.
Fiske's narrative by stating that he has
been informed by Mr.. Spencer that Mr..
Wallace wrote his essay In Borneo, and
that when It was sent TO DR. Hooker the
latter was unwilling 10 print It except
! along With %. esshy which Darwin had
previously shown him; 80 that the papers
containing the two independent discov-
cries appeared side by side In the Linnpu
Journal, edited BY Dr.. Hooker. 1t Is
also said -but can not vouch for this
that II was when Darwin was exploring
Galapagos that II occurred to him that
the animals Of that island were Just such
as they would have been had there been
a migration from Ecuador, and that after.
ward, severed rom die, mainland, then
had been modified TO suit thenew insulhr |
conditions; this being the fret time tue |
theory OF natural selection suggested |
itself TO him, and that aflerward It was |
on q visit 10 the very same islands that
Wallace had the facts which led ito the
aame idea .impf essed9 upon ihinflYf lEf.
Wallace, said Nj. Flske, thoug ht out tnS
dependentlY the essential points OF the
theory, but he by no means worked 1t
out as Darwin did. His own recent de-
lclAratioh that his strength RaIld have
been qdite unequal to the task which
Mr.. Darwin has accomplished Is as true
as II is modest
THE ACQuIEsCENcE OF NATURALEsTs IN
H1sJ & pARwN's VIEWS.
The almost immediate acquiescence Of
the majority Of naturalists in Darwin's
views proves that in 1850 the scientific
world was fully prepared for them. The
1lmsinsss oil the special creation hypotheI
als had long been lelt,by biolOglis, but
they were silent only because 10 salts
factory theofyof the process Of derivation |.
had been propounded. Nevertheless,
long before 1850 large numbers had adyo.
Gated the principle Of Northumberland,
Treviranus, Oxen, st. Vincent, Burdach, /
Fries, Potret, Halloy, the Saint Hilaires,
Naudin, Alton, Lecog, Unger, Keyserling,
SchaaihauseD, Won Baer, Hooker, Her-t
bert, Matthew, Grant, Won Buch, Littre,
Carus, Schleiden, Owen and Huxley.
Outside the ranks Of biological specialists |,
ouch views had been advocated BY Hef-
schel, Mill, Buckle, Baden, Powell and
Lewes. In 1859 and in 1855 Herbert
Spencer had shown that the specialize
ton hypothesis lacked every requisite Of
q scientific hypothesis, and the derivation
theory was by him adopted explicitly as
basis for explaining moral and intel
leclual phenomena.
Alter then sktiching the rapid progress
made by the theory the lecturer said
that the merits Of Nj. Darwin, are two!
fold &c was the first to marshal The Il
arguments from classification, morphol.
ogy, embryology and distribution, to es-
tablish the principle Of derivation, and he
was the first 10 point out The m0dUs
operdndi Ol the change from one form 10
another. lis general acceptance as the
starting point OF scientific inquiry is due
to him. go. if,FR
ARE sPRclEs CHANGING AT rms TING!
Whether species in state Of nature ale
changing or not at the present time can
not lie determined by direct observation,
any more than the motion oil the hour
hand Of the clock could 1be detected By
gazing on It one second. The period IN
which men have been observing nature Is I
infniteslmal as compared with the period
requisite tor any fundamental change in
q species. But the vast changes which
have been made In few thousand years
by artificial selection reveals thepower Of
that agency. BY 1t have been produced
the peach. and Other fruits, and the Varie-
ties Of cultured animal breeds-sheep,
cows, pigeons, dogs, and so iorth-any one
of which Is so unlike the wild stock out !.
Of which twas cultivated, that II found
in slateSof nature Il would unhesita-
tingly be regarded as distinct species,
and 10 some cases distinct genus, Ali
these Varietes have been PRODUCED bylx.
ing on the Slight differences between ali 1.
animals OF the same species. and co opera.
ting with the law Of hereditary TRANSMITS
sion. MI. Darwin has shown that before
man began this artificial solution a likel
force was operating in Nature producing
sloHef publications AL plans and mi: I
mals tend TO multiply in Nigh ge0metri. /:
cal ratio. The Arctic protococcus multi
plies 80 fast as to color red many acres Of
wilma single night But thisis trihe 4
TO what would happen II reproduction
Hereto goon unchecked. II every seed
OF a plant yielding one hundred seeds an. ]
nually were TO produce aghpndred units q
tnrni end all these their hundrads iufurt, L
and D OF, nlhe tenth year he produce Z
would be one hundred quintillions oil
adult plants. Surprising each OF these
plants 70 be five to three inches In length,
Their. collective length would be five mil
lion times the radlns Of the earth's orbit,
But Of these hundred seeds ninety-nine T.
must die, Out OF the six million eggs a
Goldfish has been known to spawn in one
year, dozen, perhaps, or hundred, will
survive. Battles, moro deadly than Get
tysburg or Grayelotte, are necessarily
winged On every square mile Of the earths
surisce y at1re 4 .. mighty breeder pre-.