Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1899: Volume LIV, No. 5, March 1899Various
History
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1899: Volume LIV, No. 5, March 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
It is only necessary to add a few experimental considerations to
complete a rapid sketch of the laws of variability. First, correlation
of growth: Homologous organs tend to vary in the same direction, and
together. Are the fingers joined or divided? The hand follows similar
variations. Then there is a compensation of growth which prevents the
excess of the preceding rule; when one organ is developed, another is
atrophied. Also vital competition. Every organized being must be in
harmony with the conditions of its existence or it will not subsist;
the monster may appear, but will not live. Lastly, by virtue of
natural selection, the individual must likewise possess the means of
perpetuating its species. Otherwise, a series of transformations will
come to pass in the course of successive generations, improving the
organism and adapting it more and more to the exigencies of its
habitat. The least prolific species of to-day fulfill these conditions
so well that they of themselves alone would cover the surface of the
earth if their multiplication was not checked by that of other
species. But as only a limited quantity of life is possible on our
planet, the less well-adapted organisms perish. The struggle therefore
produces a selection. It is hence presumed that in the same species
only varieties manifesting tendencies in most complete harmony with
the method of their existence will be preserved, all the intermediate
varieties being destroyed. Consequently, if we push the doctrine of
Darwin to its extreme limits, we arrive at the idea, now rejected,
that in the beginning only a single germ arose at one point on the
globe. All the analogies, on the other hand, lead us to suppose that
the earth was fruitful over its entire surface.
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