Abstract
THE discussion on the claims of Mr. Darwin for election into the Zoological Section of the Paris Academy was continued at the meeting on August 1 in comité secret, and the Revue des Cours Scientifiques gives a report, of which the following is an abstract, of M. de Quatrefages' brilliant and able reply to M. Blanchard:— There are two men included in Mr. Darwin, a naturalist observer and a theoretical thinker: the naturalist is exact, sagacious, and patient; the thinker is original and penetrating, often just, sometimes too rash. That the theory with which his name is connected, that of Natural Selection, has in it at least something seductive and plausible, is shown by its having been worked out by such men as Darwin, Wallace, and Naudin, labouring independently and in different paths. If the ideas and the works of Darwin are such as some of his opponents represent, how can they have obtained the support in less than ten years of such men as Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, Karl Vogt, Lubbock, Haeckel, Filippi, and Brandt himself, who has just been elected correspondent in opposition to Mr. Darwin? In Darwin's great work there are certainly some things which are found in Lamarck, the laws of heredity, and the transmission and progressive development of characters. The point of departure of Lamarck is an incessant spontaneous generation, that of Darwin is a unique archetype which he supposes to pre-exist, and the origin of which he does not seek. That which belongs to Darwin alone is the laws of variation which he has established, and the law of correlation of growth. His error has been the confusion between the laws which regulate the foundation and propagation of races and of species; substitute the former for the latter and his theory is incontrovertible. Without defending Mr. Darwin's theories, some of which he has indeed publicly combated, M. de Quatrefages then proceeded to enumerate the various branches of scientific inquiry in which Mr. Darwin has made original observations, and concerning which he has contributed works of great importance to science. In geology we find seven great memoirs—I. On coral islands; 2. Geological observations on volcanic islands; 3. Geological observations in South America; 4. On the connection of the volcanic phenomena in South America; 5. On the distribution of erratic blocks in South America; 6. On the geology of the Falkland Islands; 7. Origin of the saliferous deposits of Patagonia. In botany the speaker invoked the testimony of Dr. Hooker that the most beautiful discoveries made during the last ten years in vegetable physiology belong to Mr. Darwin. Finally, in zoological literature we have the report of the voyage of the Beagle; and the monograph of the Cirrhipedes, one of the most important monographs ever published. After speaking of his more popular works on the origin of species and the variation of animals and plants under domestication, M. de Quatrefages referred to his important and laborious investigations of the strange variations in fowls, pigeons, and rabbits; and summed up his eloquent address as follows:— “En résumé, M. Darwin est un naturaliste éminent qui veut écarter de la science I'invocation de la cause première, et chercher l'explication des faits naturels du monde organisé dans les causes secondes, comme on le fait depuis longtemps en géologie, en chimie, en physique. Mais il ne va pas au delà, et il ne faudrait pas juger Darwin sur la parole de quelques disciples qui semblent parfois ne pas avoir lu ses ouvrages. II y aurait injustice à le rendre responsable des exagéerations et des aberrations de ceux qui s'abritent sous son nom.”
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Darwin Before The French Academy. Nature 2, 298 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002298b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002298b0