Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 3 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Isolation and Physiological SelectionRomanes, George John
Science
Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 3 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Isolation and Physiological Selection
Romanes, George John
Evolution (Biology); Heredity
The greatest oversight that Wagner made in his otherwise valuable essays
on geographical isolation, was in not perceiving that geographical
isolation is only one among a number of other forms of isolation: and,
therefore, that although it is perfectly true, as he insisted, that
polytypic evolution cannot be effected by natural selection alone, it is
very far from true, as he further insisted, that _geographical_
isolation is the only means whereby natural selection can be assisted in
this matter. Hence it is that, when Darwin said he had not himself "made
nearly sufficient use" of geographical isolation as a factor of specific
divergence, he quite reasonably added that he could not go so far as
Wagner did in regarding such isolation as a condition, _sine qua non_,
to divergent evolution in all cases. Nevertheless, he adds the
important words, "I almost wish I could believe in its importance to the
same extent with you; for you well show, in a manner which never
occurred to me, that it removes many difficulties and objections." These
words are important, because they show that Darwin had come to feel the
force of the "difficulties and objections" with regard to divergent
evolution being possible by means of natural selection alone, and how
readily they could be removed by assuming the assistance of isolation.
Hence, it is much to be deplored that Wagner presented a single kind of
isolation (geographical) as equivalent to the principle of isolation in
general. For he thus failed to present the complete--and, therefore, the
true--philosophy of the subject to Darwin's mind; and in this, as in
certain other respects which I shall notice later on, served rather to
confuse than to elucidate the matter as a whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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