PDF - Wallace Online
PDF - Wallace Online PDF - Wallace Online
470 TROPICAL NATUREearth thus attached to birds' feet several plants were raised.As showing the importance of this mode of transport, anexperiment was made with six and three -fourths ounces ofmud taken from the edge of a little pond, and it was foundto contain the enormous number of five hundred and thirtysevenseeds of several distinct species! This was proved bykeeping the mud under glass and pulling up each plant as itappeared, and at the end of six months the result was asgiven above. It was also found that small portions of aquaticplants were often entangled in the feet of birds, and to theseas well as to the feet themselves, molluscs or their eggs werefound to be attached, furnishing a mode of distribution forsuch organisms. Experiments were also made on the powerof land-shells to resist the action of sea-water ;and we havealready referred to the observations on volcanic dust carriedfar out to sea, illustrating the facilities for the wide extensionby aerial currents of such plants as have very minute or verylight seeds. l The facts are of so anomalous and apparentlycontradictory a character that, on the old hypothesis of thespecial independent creation of each species, no rationalexplanation of them could be found ;and we may fairlyclaim that the clear and often detailed explanation which canbe given by means of the theories and investigations ofDarwin, lend a powerful support to his views, and go far tocomplete the demonstration of their correctness.Our space will not permit us to do more than advert tothe numerous ingenious explanations and suggestions withwhich the Origin of Species abounds, such as, for example, thestrange fact of so many of the beetles of Madeira being wingless,while the same species, or their near allies on the continentof Europe, have full powers of flight ;and that this isnot due to any direct action of climate or physical conditionsis proved by the equally curious fact that such species ofinsects as have wings in Maderia, have them rather largerthan usual. Equally new and important is the Darwinianexplanation of the form of the bees' cell, which is shown toi This series of observations and experiments, supplemented by those ofother observers, have been applied by the writer of this article to explainsome indetail the remarkable phenomena presented by the distribution ofanimals and plants over the chief islands of the glooe. See Island Life.Macmillan and Co.
ix THE DEBT OF SCIENCE TO DARWIN 471be due to a few simple instincts which necessarily lead to theexact hexagonal cell with the base formed of three triangularplates inclined at definite angles, on which so much mathematicallearning and misplaced admiration have been expended ;and this explanation is no theory, but is the direct outcomeof experiments on the bees at work, as original as they wereingenious and convincing.The Descent of Man and Later WorksWe must, however, pass on to the great and important work,The Descent of Man and on Selection in Relation to Sex, whichabounds in strange facts and suggestive explanations; andfor the reader who wishes to understand the character andbearing of Darwin's teachings, this book is the fitting supplementto the Origin of Species and the Domesticated Animals andPlants. To give any adequate account of this most remarkablebook and the controversies to which it has given rise,would require an article to itself. We refer to it here inorder to point out what is not generally known, that itspublication was entirely out of its due course, and was notanticipated by its author three years before. In the introductionto Domesticated Animals (published in 1868), afterexplaining the scope of that work, he tells us that in asecond work he shall treat of "Variation Under Nature,"giving copious facts on variation, local and general, on races,sub-species and species, on geometrical increase, on the strugglefor existence, with the results of experiments showing thatdiversity of forms enables more life to be supported on agiven area, while the extermination of less improved forms,the formation of genera and families, and the process ofnatural selection, will be fully discussed. This work wouldhave given all the facts on which chaptersii. to v. of theOrigin of Species were founded. In a third work he proposedto show, in detail, how many classes of facts natural selectionexplains, such as geological succession, geographical distribution,embryology, affinities, classification, rudimentary organs,etc., etc., thus givingthe facts and reasonings in full onwhich the latter part of the Origin of Species was founded.Unfortunately, neither of these works has appeared, and thusthe symmetry and completeness of the body of facts which
- Page 436 and 437: 420 TROPICAL NATUREprotoplasm up to
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- 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
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- 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 472 and 473: 456 TROPICAL NATUREof comparing the
- 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 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 471be due to a few simple instincts which necessarily lead to theexact hexagonal cell with the base formed of three triangularplates inclined at definite angles, on which so much mathematicallearning and misplaced admiration have been expended ;and this explanation is no theory, but is the direct outcomeof experiments on the bees at work, as original as they wereingenious and convincing.The Descent of Man and Later WorksWe must, however, pass on to the great and important work,The Descent of Man and on Selection in Relation to Sex, whichabounds in strange facts and suggestive explanations; andfor the reader who wishes to understand the character andbearing of Darwin's teachings, this book is the fitting supplementto the Origin of Species and the Domesticated Animals andPlants. To give any adequate account of this most remarkablebook and the controversies to which it has given rise,would require an article to itself. We refer to it here inorder to point out what is not generally known, that itspublication was entirely out of its due course, and was notanticipated by its author three years before. In the introductionto Domesticated Animals (published in 1868), afterexplaining the scope of that work, he tells us that in asecond work he shall treat of "Variation Under Nature,"giving copious facts on variation, local and general, on races,sub-species and species, on geometrical increase, on the strugglefor existence, with the results of experiments showing thatdiversity of forms enables more life to be supported on agiven area, while the extermination of less improved forms,the formation of genera and families, and the process ofnatural selection, will be fully discussed. This work wouldhave given all the facts on which chaptersii. to v. of theOrigin of Species were founded. In a third work he proposedto show, in detail, how many classes of facts natural selectionexplains, such as geological succession, geographical distribution,embryology, affinities, classification, rudimentary organs,etc., etc., thus givingthe facts and reasonings in full onwhich the latter part of the Origin of Species was founded.Unfortunately, neither of these works has appeared, and thusthe symmetry and completeness of the body of facts which
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