An Anti-Darwinian Contribution

Abstract

TO avoid any misconception to which the somewhat ambiguous title of this work may give rise, let it be at once stated that this is not an exposition of the Darwinian theory; neither is it a contribution to that theory in the constructive sense, nor does it attempt to deal with the subject in any other than a destructive sense. The author has, in fact, played the same part in the present little book of some 113 pages that he played some years ago in a similar production which is now out of print, and which bore the title “Notes on Natural Selection and the Origin of Species.” Mr. Pascoe has hardly placed himself in the position of "counsel for the opposition,"inasmuch as he can scarcely be said to plead anywhere against the Darwinian theory; he acts rather as solicitor for the opposition, and by virtue of his special knowledge of certain groups of insects and his general knowledge of other groups of animals, he has been enabled to collate a large number of difficulties and objections which have occurred to himself and to other naturalists. It is hardly necessary to say that many of the most weighty objections raised by the author have been culled from the writings of Darwin himself. The result has been the production of a brief which is valuable as coming from a systematist of recognized authority, and which the counsel for the opposition may and no doubt will make use of.

The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species.

By Francis P. Pascoe, &c., ex-President of the Entomological Society. (London: Gurney and Jackson, 1890.)