The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-01-04
EVOLUTION.
lecture by Prof H. .. Morse.

! lecture by PFOc Il. =. Morse.
Saturday evening Prof. Edward S. Morse de.
livered in Army and Navy Hall the firstof his
three lectures on Evolution" to as intelligent
an audience as is often assembled in Portland.
Judging from the questions often asked him
by educated persons, Prof Morse felt justified
in saying that the majority Of persons know
nothing OF the Evolution theory; many think
Darwin teache, that man descended from a
monkey, while he really teaches that both
come from a common ancestor; others say,
show us the intermediate forms and we will
believe in Evolution. The fact is, in many
cases the intermediate form isnot a contempor-
airy, but an ances or; perhaps this ancestor ana
not find conditions favorable 20 perpetuate its
kind. but developed the two species IN question
which differ from itself.
An over estimate of the atheistical tendencies
of this theory has prejudiced many against ".
To show that the estimate is wrong, Prof
Morse quoted from the works of prominent
Evolutionists-from Darwin as follows: 1.-The
birth of the species and of the individual are
equally parts of that grand sequence of events
which our minds refuse to accept as the result
of blind chance"
Wallace, who independent of Darwin,
thought out the theory of natural selection
writes as follows: eff therefore we have traced
one force, however minute, to an origin In our
will, while we have no knowledge OF any other
primary cause of force, it does not seem an
improbable conclusion that all force may be
will force; and thus that the whole universe is
not merely dependent on, but actually is the
will of higher intelligences or of one Supreme
Intelligence"
DR.. Asa Gray, Congregationalist and firm
believer in natural selection, writes. Let us
hope that, in the future, even more than in the
past, faith in order which is the basis OF all
sciences will not be dissolved from faith i'll an
ordaluer which is the basis of religion.
The object of these lectures is mainly to eX-
plain some of the leading features in the
theories of Evolution as applied to the present
condition of organized bodies upon the earth.
The idea that animals and plants have
sprung from pre-existing forms, IS as old as
Lamarck, Oken Godfrey ST. Hiliare, but their
arguments have proved untenab!e. 1t is strange
how near these early EvolutiOnists came to the
TRUTH and yet how far they were from it.
Cuver pointed to the sudden and violent
geological changes, in which organic life must
have been destroyed, as proof of recreation.
But Lyel and others have produced mass of
evidence to prove that no such sudden changes
ever took place, but that, in Olden times, as at
present, they were slow and gentle. These
men have restored Evolution to the honorable
place which it lost in Cuviers time.
Prof. Morse now gave some idea OF the ma
terals which theEvolutionist used in his study.
Persons with an ordinary knowledge OF zoology
cannot comprehend how it is possible for one
form of animal, as agrasshopper, to change to
another as dragon fly. But it they knew
the immense number of intermediate forms,
the changes would be seen to be very gradual.
Thus, among flies in this city alone there are
1000 or 5000 species. In the clay ban ks of
Portland are 400 or 500 different species of
Shells All species have varieties and sub-va-
rietes produced by difference in physical sur
rounding; in shells by change from quiet to
rough water: in other animals and plants by
change from dry sandy soil to damp rich soil,
&c. So that if all members of any species
were ranged side By side, the change would be
almost mperceptible.
In the last seventy five years a vast amount
of work has been done in describing new
species. To find a new species was then
great honor, but in the last four years the
number of distinct species has been greatly re-
duced. Only two-thirds as many species of
birds are acknowledged now as then; and only
three-fourths as many species of animals
Variation not only in color and size, but also
in structure, and habits caused by location,
Sc, which were taken as marks of separate
species then, are now known only as marks of
variation of the same species Thus all the
oysters in these waters are of the same species
and perhaps of the same as those of England.
Prof. Morse here gave an illustration which
he noticed only few days ago, of difference in
the habits of the same species and showed its
bearing on the natural selection question. He
noticed how different moths laid
their eggs. Not all laid them in mass as has
been thought the usual manner but some
scattered them two or three in place. The
chances for the destruction ofthe mass are great
er than for that of the scattered eggs! The
moth from the scattered eggs would inherit
the same restless disposition, and thus this va
riety be perpetuated, while the other would be
more likely to die.
Different species do not embrace the same
number of individuals, nor is the number of
individuals in the same species the same in
different places. Agassiz believed that a
snecies had a birth and natural death as well
marked as the individual. But it does not die
q natural death-it is killed out by hard condi-
tions; when it begins to die the disease is very
rapid. The moose is good example OF this
rapid dying out of a species. Thousands were
killed in one year not many years ago near
Moosehead Lake, but now there are not more
than one hundred in the state. The question of
food largely determines the number of species
at given place, and also what species shall
exist in their place. That this is the reason
why some species numbers so few individuals,
and not that they cannot perpetuate their kind
is proved by the fact that the rare mammals
produce more young at birth than the COM
mon mammals, fer instance, the wild cat and
the buffalo-in the former case four or six
young at birth, aud in the latter only one or
two Food for herbivorous being more abun iant
than for carnivorous, the latter are fewer in
number. Pigeons increase rapidly, for their
rapid flight enables them to go 800 miles before
dinner III I06lr DredklaSI Suouiu udNc cAuauoVce
the food in that vicinity.
The numerical increase of even the slowest
breeding animals would be enormous if every
individual reached maturity. The elephant is
the slowest of all breeders, yet In thirty years,a
single pair would produce 100000.
The cod fish lays eight or nine millions of
eggs at time. In ten years the descendants
of single cod would form an atmosphere of
cod fish which would reach to Saturn. But
immense number of the eggs and the young
fish are destroyed by its natural enemies. In
this.struggle for life, the strongest, most ac-
tive, least conspicuous escape death longest,
and thus perpetuate their own pecullarities in
their young
The structure of an organ can be much
changed by use or disuse. Little Italian pick
pockets are recognized as such by the fact that
their first and second fingers are of the same
length the first finger being actually length
ened half an inch or more by constant use. The
wig of a tame duck is mnch lighter in COM
parison with the leg than that of wild duck.
Many other peculiarities of the same kind
might be mentioned-as OF the lappi ng ears OF
a tame rabbit being caused by the fact that he
need not be constantly on the lookout for dan
ger, and so the muscles have grown weak from
disuSe
Every popularity is transmissible to descend
ants Many instances among domestic animals
and human beings are familiar. These two
facts then lie at the basis of Evolution-that
all species are subject to variation caused by
physical surroundings, and that every variation
may be inherited.
To illustrate each point, Prof. Morse gave
many examples, but space permits the mem
ton of these few only.
SYSTEMATIC THIEv1NG.-About two weeks
ago two young men, giving their names as
Benjamin Walker and Edward Phillips, went
to the New England House to board They