PDF - Wallace Online
PDF - Wallace Online PDF - Wallace Online
456 TROPICAL NATUREof comparing the productions of one country with those ofanother of ; investigating the physical and biological relationsof islands and continents; of watching the struggle forexistence in regions where civilisation has not disturbed thefree action and reaction of the various groups of animals andplants on each other ; and, what is perhaps more importantstill, the ample leisure to ponder again and again on everyphase of the phenomena which presented themselves, freefrom the attractions of society and the disturbing excitementof daily association with contemporary men of science,these are the conditions most favourable to the formation ofhabits of original thought, and the months and years whichat first sight appear intellectually wasted in the companionshipof uncivilised man, or in the solitary contemplation ofnature, are those in which the seed was sown which wasdestined to produce in after years the mature fruit of greatphilosophical conceptions. Let us then first glance over theJournal of Researches, in which are recorded the main factsand observations which struck the young traveller, and seehow far we can detect here the germs of those ideas andproblems to the working out of which he devoted a long andlaborious life.The Journal of ResearchesThe question of the causes which have produced the distributionand the dispersal of organisms seems to have beena constant subject of observation and meditation. At anearly period of the voyage he collected infusorial dust whichfell on the ship when at sea, and he notes the suggestive factthat in similar dust collected on a vessel 300 miles from landhe found particles of stone above the thousandth of an inchsquare, and remarks": After this fact, one need not be surprisedat the diffusion of the far lighter and smaller sporulesof cryptogamic plants." He records many cases of insectsoccurring far out at sea, on one occasion when the nearestland was 370 miles distant. He paid special attention to theinsects and plants inhabiting the Keeling or Cocos, and otherrecently formed coralline or volcanic islands ;the contrast ofthese with the peculiar productions of the Galapagos evidentlyimpressed him profoundly ;while the remarkable facts pre-
ix THE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 457sented by this latter group of islands brought out so clearlyand strongly the insuperable difficulties of the then acceptedtheory of the independent origin of species, as to keep thisgreat problem ever present to his mind, and, at a later period,led him to devote himself to the patient and laborious inquirieswhich were the foundation of his immortal work. Heagain and again remarks on the singular facts presentedby these islands. Why, he asks, were the aboriginal inhabitantsof the Galapagos created on American types oforganisation, though the two countries differ totally in geologicalcharacter and physical conditions ? Why are so manyof the species peculiar to the separate islands? He "isastonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expressionmay be used, displayed in these small, barren, and rockyislands ;and still more so at its diverse, yet analogous actionon points so near each other."The variations which occur in species, as well as the modificationsof the same organ in allied species, subjects whichhad been much neglected by ordinary naturalists, were constantlynoted and commented on. He remarks on theoccasional blindness of the burrowing tucutucu of the Pampasas supporting the view of Lamarck on the gradually acquiredblindness of the aspalax; on the hard point of the tail oftrigonocephalus, which constantly vibrates and produces arattling noise by striking against grass and brushwood, as acharacter varying towards the complete rattle of the rattlesnake;on the small size of the wild horses in the Falklandislands, as progressing towards a small breed like the Shetlandponies of the North; and on the strange fact of the cattlehaving increased in size, and having partly separated into twodifferently coloured breeds. While collecting the remains ofthe great extinct mammals of the Pampas, he was much impressedby the fact that, however huge in size or strange inform, they were all allied to living South American animals,as are those of the cave-deposits of Australia to the marsupials"of that country ;and he thereon remarks : This wonderfulrelationship in the same continent between the dead and theliving will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light on theappearance of organic beings on our earth, and their disappearancefrom than it, any other class of facts."
- Page 422 and 423: 406 TROPICAL NATUREThe seeds of a p
- Page 424 and 425: TROPICAL NATUREpurple or blue, thre
- Page 426 and 427: 410 TROPICAL NATUREON THE ORIGINOF
- Page 428 and 429: 412 TROPICAL NATUREthese were the o
- Page 430 and 431: 414 TROPICAL NATUREHomer's time he
- Page 432 and 433: VIIIndications of Man's Extreme Ant
- Page 434 and 435: 418 TROPICAL NATUREnorth in Norway.
- Page 436 and 437: 420 TROPICAL NATUREprotoplasm up to
- Page 438 and 439: 422 TROPICAL NATUREtogether, indica
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- Page 442 and 443: 426 TROPICAL NATUREing three miles
- Page 444 and 445: TROPICAL NATUREprominence.Other exa
- Page 446 and 447: 430 . TROPICAL NATURETheThere is on
- Page 448 and 449: 432 TROPICAL NATUREadvance, man's i
- Page 450 and 451: 434 TROPICAL NATUREdoubt, accusatio
- Page 452 and 453: TROPICAL NATUREhave evidence of an
- Page 454 and 455: 438 TROPICAL NATUREMan Coeval with
- Page 456 and 457: 440 TROPICAL NATUREthan twenty feet
- Page 458 and 459: 442 TROPICAL NATUREare made of a cu
- Page 460 and 461: 444 TROPICAL NATUREsurrounding plai
- Page 462 and 463: 446 TROPICAL NATUREmortars have bee
- Page 464 and 465: 448 TROPICAL NATUREcoveries should
- Page 466 and 467: IXTHE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 1Th
- Page 468 and 469: 452 TROPICAL NATUREanatomy could be
- Page 470 and 471: 454 TROPICAL NATUREthat each specie
- Page 474 and 475: 458 TROPICAL NATUREHe also saw, at
- Page 476 and 477: 460 TROPICAL NATUREbotanists, farme
- Page 478 and 479: 462 TROPICAL NATUREshapes of the pr
- Page 480 and 481: 464 TROPICAL NATUREway caused the p
- Page 482 and 483: 466 TROPICAL NATUREmade showing tha
- Page 484 and 485: 468 TROPICAL NATUREour gardens, sho
- Page 486 and 487: 470 TROPICAL NATUREearth thus attac
- Page 488 and 489: 472 TROPICAL NATUREDarwin had colle
- Page 490 and 491: 474 TROPICAL NATUREendeavoured, how
- Page 492 and 493: INDEXABBOTT, C. C., on American pal
- Page 494 and 495: 478 INDEXBelt, Mr., on leaf-cutting
- Page 496 and 497: INDEXColour of flowers, as explaine
- Page 498 and 499: INDEXEquatorial climate, uniformity
- Page 500 and 501: 484 INDEXHeliconidae, not attacked
- Page 502 and 503: 486 INDEX.Man, importance of mental
- Page 504 and 505: 488 INDEXOxyrhopus petolarius, 0. t
- Page 506 and 507: isexes,490 INDEXShell-mounds, ancie
- Page 508: 115472492 INDEXWeale, Mr. J. P. Man
ix THE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 457sented by this latter group of islands brought out so clearlyand strongly the insuperable difficulties of the then acceptedtheory of the independent origin of species, as to keep thisgreat problem ever present to his mind, and, at a later period,led him to devote himself to the patient and laborious inquirieswhich were the foundation of his immortal work. Heagain and again remarks on the singular facts presentedby these islands. Why, he asks, were the aboriginal inhabitantsof the Galapagos created on American types oforganisation, though the two countries differ totally in geologicalcharacter and physical conditions ? Why are so manyof the species peculiar to the separate islands? He "isastonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expressionmay be used, displayed in these small, barren, and rockyislands ;and still more so at its diverse, yet analogous actionon points so near each other."The variations which occur in species, as well as the modificationsof the same organ in allied species, subjects whichhad been much neglected by ordinary naturalists, were constantlynoted and commented on. He remarks on theoccasional blindness of the burrowing tucutucu of the Pampasas supporting the view of Lamarck on the gradually acquiredblindness of the aspalax; on the hard point of the tail oftrigonocephalus, which constantly vibrates and produces arattling noise by striking against grass and brushwood, as acharacter varying towards the complete rattle of the rattlesnake;on the small size of the wild horses in the Falklandislands, as progressing towards a small breed like the Shetlandponies of the North; and on the strange fact of the cattlehaving increased in size, and having partly separated into twodifferently coloured breeds. While collecting the remains ofthe great extinct mammals of the Pampas, he was much impressedby the fact that, however huge in size or strange inform, they were all allied to living South American animals,as are those of the cave-deposits of Australia to the marsupials"of that country ;and he thereon remarks : This wonderfulrelationship in the same continent between the dead and theliving will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light on theappearance of organic beings on our earth, and their disappearancefrom than it, any other class of facts."
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