New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-17
and contrary to experience.
The selection theory, taken as q Who'll


The selection theory, taken as q whole, ought, 30.
cordng to Darwin, to be a purely mechanical, and,
as SUCH sufficient principle for the explanation of
phenomena in the domain Of organic life. But IL
cannot be SUCH because two Of the constituent FAC
tors variability and transmission, are not themselves
mechanical principles; and the third, selection
through the struggle for existence, although tsa
pure mechanical principle still nude Tor III appI'a-
ton these two other principles which are unmeehah
ical, and therefore it cannot presume to be An she
quate, but only a cooperative secondary prncipie
This untenabie mechanical doctrine Is one error Oh
the selection theory The other is the oyer-estlna-
ton of it's range and application. Its employment
is excluded in all cases Of essential morphoogcal
notifications in type, especially in every ELEVATION
or enhancement in the stage Of the organization, but
il is also in the accommodation to physiological con-
ditions of life made dependent the fulhlment Of
a whole circle of conditions. These condit'ons
Hartmann enumerates at length and then
adds: "H one seeks TO know what ZIG
nifcance the fulfllment of all these conditions
gives to the selections theory the means OF per-
feet change in type, il will be found 10 shrnk
almost TO nothing. But when one remembers thas
natural selection has not the task OF carrying o"s
transmutation processes Of long duration bnt that
it only represents an auxiliary for the support OF an
inward legitimate forming activity then lts signlh-
canoe in the economy of nature remains SILL very
great in spite Of the exaggeraton which 1t has re-
ceved This principle is . regulator, coupling 10
the machinery, but not the driving force
In similar manner Hartmann takes mp Dar~ins
auxiliary principles of the direct effect Of eternal
conditions upon the organism, which he has derived
from the Geoffray St. Hilare, and the influence 81
use and nonuse upon special organs which lies at the
basis of Lamarck's theory. The first principle Hart
mann finds Of superficial physiological character
serving in no wise for the explanation OF the SYSTEM
attic transmutation of types In reference to the see
ond he remarks that the effect of the ncrcase use
ar nonuse only concerns the length and weight, or
structure but not the form of the organ; second
that in a simple change in size limit il preserved,
since the reduction through nonuse can never
be carried to the complete disappearance of the or
gan and thirdly that a change in the method Of use
of the organ in most cases is conditioned on peceo-
ing change in the instinct, which itself must rprihs
from an inward spontaneous accommodation OF III
stinct TO changed conditions Of life, out of the IN
ward legitimate development Of instinct from lower
to a higher grade. This principle must not be con-
founded with Darwn's selection theory and II oilers
no room for the simple mechanical theory, h'cause
the motor is the conscious activity of the human or
animal spirit or instinct toward certain END III ~
theological, not mechanical.
After further considering the law of sexual -elec-
tion and the law of correlation, Hartmann closes his
critque with chapter on Mechanism and Ieloiogy.
Neither of these can be excluded from the DOMAIN 81
Nature They are related together as means and end.
They are reciprocal. II prominence is to be aserped
to one of them, then it must be telology since tho
means exists for the end, and not the end Tor tbs
means.