" The
author apparently believes that organisation progresses by sudden leaps,
but that the effects produced by the conditions of life are gradual. He
argues with much force on general grounds that species are not immutable
productions. But I cannot see how the two supposed "impulses" account in a
scientific sense for the numerous and beautiful coadaptations which we see
throughout nature; I cannot see that we thus gain any insight how, for
instance, a woodpecker has become adapted to its peculiar habits of life.
The work, from its powerful and brilliant style, though displaying in the
early editions little accurate knowledge and a great want of scientific
caution, immediately had a very wide circulation. In my opinion it has
done excellent service in this country in calling attention to the subject,
in removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception
of analogous views.
In 1846 the veteran geologist M.J. d'Omalius d'Halloy published in an
excellent though short paper ("Bulletins de l'Acad. Roy. Bruxelles", tom.
xiii, page 581) his opinion that it is more probable that new species have
been produced by descent with modification than that they have been
separately created: the author first promulgated this opinion in 1831.
Professor Owen, in 1849 ("Nature of Limbs", page 86), wrote as follows:
"The archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh under diverse such
modifications, upon this planet, long prior to the existence of those
animal species that actually exemplify it.
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