Some chemical difficulties of evolution / by J.J. Maclaren.

  • Maclaren, J. J.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some chemical difficulties of evolution / by J.J. Maclaren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    variations perpetuated by descent, and preserved by the advantage they gave their possessors in the battle of life. Mr. Darwin, however, does not himself assert that all forms are descended from one, and that this form was called into existence by the action of ordinary physical force; these positions are exten- sions of Mr. Darwin's views, which, so far as the writer has been able to discover, have been obtained, not by making further experiments, but by framing theories from the facts which Mr. Darwin and his followers have collected and arranged in support of his views. If now we take up one of the works in which these extended views are put forward, such as Hseckel's History of Creation, two points will strike us as especially worthy of remark. (1) That our author professes to give a complete history of the origin and progi'ess of life, to account for all the phenomena we observe among living beings, and to lay down an authentic pedigree for each living creature, which accounts for every peculiarity which this creature exhibits. (2) That in tracing the long chain of descent connecting the highest living being with the original form of life, the force of chemical attraction, and the laws which govern chemical combination, are referred to once, and once only, namely, where an appeal is made to the action of ordinary physical force to account for the production of the first living form. We are told that the appearance of this form was due frO the production of a chemical compound, to which
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