New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-29
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
rur npcpNrRArION OF SPECIES.

THE DEGENERATION OF SPECIES.
DEGENERAIoy Chapter In Dar% iu a. Exeter r
College. oxford. l2mo Pr. rs. Macmillan Co
There is a certain unpleasant temper Observable
sometimes IN men of science to which no word that
we can think of so well applies as the cant phrase
bumptiousness." Professor Lancaster gives more
than one example of it in tins interesting DISCOURSE
He is at pains to distinguish, in his Introductory
pages, between Science, which studies the
causes of things and the order OF NATURE
and Invention, which turns discoveries to
practical use. The distinction is real one ana IL
is we'll that it should be pointed out. But Professor
Lancaster goes on to say: American inventors
and electric lamps together with all the factories
In Sheffield might be obliterated without causing a
moments concern to a single student OF science IL
is of the utmost Importance for the progress ana
well-being of science that this should be understood;
that the eager practical spirit of the inventor VINO
gains large pecuniary rewards by the sale OF his IN
ventions should not be confounded with what Is
totally different and remote from it, namely, the
devoted searching spirit of science which, needless
of pecuniaIy rewards, ever faces nature
with single purpose-to ascertain the causes
OF things. 1t seems 10 me Impossible to emphasize
too strongly in such place and in such a meeting
as this 1.-THE treatise before originally read al
n meeting of the British Association last SUMMER
that Invention is widely separated fTom thongn
dependent on Science. Invention is worldly wise,
and despises the pursuit OF knowledge for It's own
sake She awaits the discoveries of Science. In
order to sell them to civilization, gathering the
golden fruit which she has neither planted nor
tended. Invention follows. 1t is true the footsteps
of Science. but at distance; she IS utterly
devoid of that thriftless yearning after
knowledge, that passionate desire TO know
the truth. which causes the unceasiug advance
of her guide and benefactress" Now the assumption
that there is an essential difference of moral quality
between labor undertaken for the sake of practical
Use and labor undertaken for the mere sake OF dis
covery is entirely unfOunded-as much so rs the
assumption that the man of science is. rule. in
different to pecunary rewards. while the inventor
is only actuated by love of gain. The man OF
science may he governed by pride or curiosity Just
as the inventor NAV be animated by love OF
money The whole history of scientific discovery
cnntradicts Professor Lankesters eXtravagant pre-
tensions for the brilliant explorations of the
causes of things and the order of nature have re-
suited directly from the ingenuity of the inventor
quite rs much as from the zesd and acuteness of
The theorzer 1t would be hard to say
that devising the microscope was less
noble conir button TO pure science than looking
through il. Invention. IT is true, follows the foot
steps of Science but Invention also guides the foot
steps of Science. Professor Lancaster could not
have observed the facts recorded in this address If
Invention had not shown him how; ard if we sur
vev the lives of the greatest discoveries in natural
science from Calico to our own day, shall per-
hans be puzzled TO decide whether they have better
served the cause of truth by the originality of their
inventions or the acuteness with which they have
deluced laws from the facts these inventions have
enabled them TO test.
In the somewhat guarded note in which
Professor Lancaster treats of the sup
posed conflict between the teachings of
Darwnsm and the teachings of Christianity, there
is another exhibition of the supertluous arrogance
with which the claims of pure science are OCCASION
ally asser ed. lie shows that our belief in so I'll
and divine Creator need not be at all affected by
the admission that man has been derived from ape
like ancestors by process of natural selection;
many thoughtful people 90 hold that at some def
mite stage in the DEVELOPMENT the miraculous inter
ventlon of God introduced into the animal " some
thing termed conscious SOUL" Professor Lam
keser states this view of the case with force and
candor; but when he tells us that 1T seems
to him perfectly legitimate and harm
less for individuals to make such an
assumption. if their particular form of philosophy
or of religion requires IT," we can hardly help read
ing between the lines that he considers such specu
lations the mere amusement of theologans too
trivial even for serious consideration the origin of
Science asks where he from, and does not care
where he is going.
These bemishes do not touch the substance of the
book they are only flaws on the outside and they
would not he worth notice if the treatise which they
mar were not In itself good. and if they were not
moreover faults Of very common occurrence.
The subject of Professor Lankestcrs dis
course is process in the development of
forms of animal life which may be called the re-
verse of the course OF variation so ably observed
and described by Mr.. Darwin. Naturalists have |
hitherto assumed that the process of natural selec-
ton and survival of the fttest has acted as |
either to improve and elaborate the structure of all
the organisms subject to it, else has left them
changed exactly fitted to their conditions, main |
tanned as it were IN state of balance. The
Is supposed to have gone steadily upward from the
lower or simplest forms to the higher or |
more complex. This at least has been |
taken to be the general rule, although an !
exception has been recognized in the case |
Of parasitic animals, which admitted to be in
stances of degeneration. But the invest cations Of |
DI. Dorm, of Naples, published five years ago. seem
to establish the applicability of tie hypothesis of
degeneration to great number OF existing forms |
of life and justify us in concluding that natural |
selection acts in three waysit may Keep the struc
ture of tie organism IN sotu qaO. it may increase
its completely or it may diminish its cOmplexty,
thus we have as poss bties either Balance or Elab
orati,n or Degeneration Degeneration may he
defined rs gradual change of structure III
which the animal becomes adapted to less
varied and less complex conditions of hfc
il is supgre sson of form corresponding to the
sation OF work. Any SET of conditions occur
ring to an animal which render its food and safety
very easily attained. 20 lead a rule to de-
generation. 1t is so with the parasites. Let the
parasitic life be secured and away go legs |
Jaws eyes ard ears; the active crab, insect OF an
ncid may become & mere sac, absorbing nOursh-
ment and laying eggs. A number Of shrinip-llke |