Abstract
THE purpose of this work, in the words of its author, is “to test by the common-sense that Huxley says is science, whether the Darwinian doctrine, that the evolution of life (sic) on our planet was brought about by natural selection and other secondary causes, accords with ascertained facts, or satisfactorily accounts for the natural phenomena it professes to explain, and, also, to submit a new theory that will explain satisfactorily the admitted facts of evolution.” Mr. Barclay's fitness for the task he has undertaken may be judged by the following particulars. In a chapter on “Phases of the Embryo and Fragmentary Organs,”he speaks of “ the transformation of gills, visible at an early stage in the embryo of mammals, into lungs.” In a subsequent chapter he asks, with reference to the whales, “Is it possible to conceive that transformations so great—one pair of legs into fins and the other pair into a tail—could have been brought about by natural selection, accumulation of beneficial differences, use or disuse, or changed conditions of existence? How, then, does Darwin's theory explain these changes?” We confess that we are not prepared with an answer to this question; probably, however, the author here intends his words to bear some other than their obvious meaning. When we find, a little further on, a reference to “Professor Weissman in his ‘Germinal’,”it is easy to form a conjecture as to the author and treatise intended; but one may be pardoned for not at once recognising the co-discoverer with Darwin of natural selection under the designation of “Mr. Alexander WTallace.” The author's “new theory” is simply the outworn hypothesis of special creation in a peculiarly irrational form.
A New Theory of Organic Evolution.
By James W. Barclay (of Glenbuchat). Pp. vi + 174. (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1903.) Price 3s. 6d. net.
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D., F. A New Theory of Organic Evolution . Nature 69, 316 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/069316a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/069316a0