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
4. EVEN IF IT WERE TRUE THAT ALL SPECIES AND ALL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS
MUST NECESSARILY OWE THEIR ORIGIN TO NATURAL SELECTION, IT WOULD STILL
REMAIN ILLOGICAL TO DEFINE THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION AS
INDIFFERENTLY A THEORY OF SPECIES OR A THEORY OF ADAPTATIONS; FOR, EVEN
UPON THIS ERRONEOUS SUPPOSITION, SPECIFIC CHARACTERS AND ADAPTIVE
CHARACTERS WOULD REMAIN VERY FAR INDEED FROM BEING CONTERMINOUS--MOST OF
THE MORE IMPORTANT ADAPTATIONS WHICH OCCUR IN ORGANIC NATURE BEING THE
COMMON PROPERTY OF MANY SPECIES.
5. IN NO CASE CAN NATURAL SELECTION HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE OF MUTUAL
INFERTILITY BETWEEN ALLIED, OR ANY OTHER, SPECIES--_I.E._ OF THE MOST
GENERAL OF ALL "SPECIFIC CHARACTERS."
6. WITHOUT ISOLATION, OR THE PREVENTION OF FREE INTERCROSSING, ORGANIC
EVOLUTION IS IN NO CASE POSSIBLE. THEREFORE, IT IS ISOLATION THAT _HAS_
BEEN "THE EXCLUSIVE MEANS OF MODIFICATION," OR, MORE CORRECTLY, THE
UNIVERSAL CONDITION TO IT. THEREFORE, ALSO, HEREDITY AND VARIABILITY
BEING GIVEN, THE WHOLE THEORY OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION BECOMES A THEORY OF
THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS WHICH LEAD TO ISOLATION.
7. ISOLATION MAY BE EITHER DISCRIMINATE OR INDISCRIMINATE. WHEN
DISCRIMINATE, IT HAS REFERENCE TO RESEMBLANCES BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS
CONSTITUTING THE ISOLATED COLONY OR GROUP; WHEN INDISCRIMINATE, IT HAS
NO SUCH REFERENCE. IN THE FORMER CASE THERE ARISES HOMOGAMY, AND IN THE
LATTER CASE THERE ARISES APOGAMY.
8. EXCEPT WHERE VERY LARGE POPULATIONS ARE CONCERNED, INDISCRIMINATE
ISOLATION ALWAYS TENDS TO BECOME INCREASINGLY DISCRIMINATE; AND, IN THE
MEASURE THAT IT DOES SO, APOGAMY PASSES INTO HOMOGAMY, BY VIRTUE OF
INDEPENDENT VARIABILITY.
9. NATURAL SELECTION IS ONE AMONG MANY OTHER FORMS OF DISCRIMINATE
ISOLATION, AND PRESENTS IN THIS RELATION THE FOLLOWING PECULIARITIES:--
(_A_) THE ISOLATION IS WITH REFERENCE TO SUPERIORITY OF FITNESS; (_B_)
IS EFFECTED BY DEATH OF THE EXCLUDED INDIVIDUALS; AND (_C_) UNLESS
ASSISTED BY SOME OTHER FORM OF ISOLATION, CAN ONLY EFFECT MONOTYPIC AS
DISTINGUISHED FROM POLYTYPIC EVOLUTION.
10. IT IS A GENERAL LAW OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION THAT THE NUMBER OF
POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS IN WHICH DIVERGENCE MAY OCCUR CAN NEVER BE MORE THAN
EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF CASES OF EFFICIENT ISOLATION; BUT, EXCEPTING
NATURAL SELECTION, ANY ONE FORM OF ISOLATION NEED NOT NECESSARILY
REQUIRE THE CO-OPERATION OF ANOTHER FORM IN ORDER TO CREATE AN
ADDITIONAL CASE OF ISOLATION, OR TO CAUSE POLYTYPIC AS DISTINGUISHED
FROM MONOTYPIC EVOLUTION.
11. WHERE COMMON AREAS AND POLYTYPIC EVOLUTION ARE CONCERNED, THE MOST
GENERAL AND MOST EFFICIENT FORM OF ISOLATION HAS BEEN THE PHYSIOLOGICAL,
AND THIS WHETHER THE MUTUAL INFERTILITY HAS BEEN THE ANTECEDENT OR THE
CONSEQUENT OF MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES ON THE PART OF THE ORGANISMS
CONCERNED, AND WHETHER OR NOT THESE CHANGES ARE OF AN ADAPTIVE
CHARACTER.
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