The morning call., 1893-12-15
DO SPECIES EXIST ?
Crucial Test of Creation
of New Forms.
The Fifth Lecture on Evolution by
President David Starr Jordan
in Golden Gate Hall.

The subject OF President Jordan's lecture
Wednesday evening was Do Species Exist"'
Darwin, said the lecturer, once wrote mono
graph on barDacles in which he tried to de-
scribe all the barnacles of The sea. He wrote:
This systematic work would be easy were
II not for this confounded variation, which,
however. is pleasant TO me as speculatlst
though odious as a SYST matist."
He could not depend upon his barnacles;
they were always varying. After describing a
set OF forms as distinct species, tearing them
up and making them separate, and then max
ing them over again. l have CRASHED my teeth,
cursed species and asked what sin l had COM
mitted to be so ed
While writing TO describe many species, and
at the ArliDg on Hotel, Santa Barbara, the
noor OF my room was covered with letters re-
jected because each new individual made the
prior description US less.
The crucial ties OF the development theory is
the fact-does one species change into another?
Species generally means kind. The word was
nsed first abou lao years ago by Linnaus,
who, in sense, was the founder OF modern
zoology on account OF his system OF recording.
In animals OF limited district. such as East
ern Sweden, there is no difficulty in telling
where one species leaves off and another be-
gins. Differences may be simple, but they are
constant and apparently permanent.
In the system of Linn8us there was no doubt
as 10 species being detiaite hing, and he says
tnat tnete are as many species on the earth now
as there were different forms created In the be-
ginning. that each species had been separately
Great d by Tue hand OF God and had not under
gone change. Linn4us did mol know OF extinct
species. nor that comparatively only few species
are left. LinDBus r. cognlZed the idea OF variety
dependent on geographical limitations. cllmatt,
etc. In The genus homo he recognized homo
sapiens. the aboriginal man. and homo troglo-
dytes, the Orang-outang and OF the former he
recognized I'VE varieties.
Cuveir recognized that species underwent
variations, and thought that modern species
could nave descended from extinct species.
Cuvier thought that there were as many species
OF animals now as there were different forma-
tons created at tn beginning of each geologic
era, which he believed 10 be about fifty
Lam rex In the Paris Museum ran across
cases where shell IN one country wonll
gradually undergo changes until it became
something qule different ana that tn sc varia-
lions were just what they appeared 10 be on
their race, modification by clinlatr.
In the DAYS OF Culver the difficulty of the
men VINO maintained the descent OF species
was 10 show the things causing the change
Whatever the factors in evolution were not
shown until the time of Darwin, Lamarck's ex-
lnOugh Goethe prophesed that the time would
come when 1t would be valued as scien ifc
his Is the conclusion reached by every one
who has taken up he study of late years. The
reason why 1t was not discovered earlier is
that people neglected the little for the great,
whereas the progress OF science has bern by
Darwin's study Of The land birds OF the Gal
lapagos Islands of South America, and also of
the Cape Verde Islands, of Western Africa.
the persistence OF the same species anu their
resemblance TO the animals of the continents
led him to the conclusion that these birds were
waits OF the Storms that had taken root there
and had changed TO match the changed sur
roundings. Ii you admit that new species can
be found on the islands you admit that one
species Can be formed from another.
In Australia the mammals are marSuplals |
the FOSSIL mammals marSunlals, and the |
lecturer concluded the modern were descend |
ants OF tn ancents. Shells that in the upper |
the lower and calmer waters of the mouth be- |
come smooth, and tbs transition Is so perfect |
that t is impossible TO tell where The one leaves
on and be other begins. From these and other |
data we conclude that time and space bring |
about changed conditions and forms.
One of the greatest movements in recogniz- |
Ing evolution OF species was the Pacific railro d |
survey. Numerous plants aud ANIMALS were |
taken 10 Washington from the greatest stretch |
along the same la itude line hat had ever been |
kuoWn. The birds, ETC., were subjected TO
Professor Baird's minute studies, and certain |
laws OF variation were thence formulated. The |
paper OF DIR. Joel Allen OF Harvard on the /
mammals and birds of Florida in 1874 was |
further sep In the advance OF our knowledge |
of species.
BY means of hundreds of measurements of
specimens he discovered laws by which he |
coulh predict the kim OF variations In birds in
some new place about TO be investigated IN |
Florida, ana showed that many of these varia-
the early opposition To Aliens theories, orni-
biologists and others have come TO the conclu-
sion that the only test of species Is the known
presence OF intermediate forms.
illustrations OF Professor Aliens laws were
given In The shore lark. the blue birds, the
meadow lark. etc. In regard to his own con-
version to that belief In evolution of species
PRESIDENT Jordan spoke of his early training
under AgassiZ in opposition TO Darwin's thso.
rles, and how he was forced by MS experience
TO take view cont rarv to that of his professor,
He then explained how fish spread I'm different
rivers, especially how The trout had come FROM
siberia and worked Its way to the Frazer
and Columbia rivers. to tile Snake and
Lewis rivers, to Utah and by the |
Colorado into and through California
and up again 10 the Columbia and Frazer,
where the two now recognized speci.s OF trout,
the descendants OF the original Siberian emf.
grants and the descr ndants of the trout that
had MGR ted and spread over the western |
country, met and lived together as TWO distinct |
specirs.
The variation OF words as shown In anthology |
and the various species of animals Is a yerv
close parallel. There is just as much reason 10 |
believe that all the words OF the f. ench Ian |
guag were created separately IN France with |
out any relation TO Latin or Greek as to tlieye
ant NJ