Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chris Logan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION BY SAMUEL CHRISTIAN SCHMUCKER, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN THE WEST CHESTER STATE NORMAL SCHOOL WEST CHESTER, PA. [Illustration] The Chautauqua Press CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK MCMXIII COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1913 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE A FOREWORD 1 I. EVOLUTION BEFORE DARWIN 7 II. DARWIN AND WALLACE 21 III. THE UNDERLYING IDEA 44 IV. ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 87 V. ADAPTATION FOR THE SPECIES 125 VI. LIFE IN THE PAST 149 VII. HOW THE MAMMALS DEVELOPED 192 VIII. THE STORY OF THE HORSE 220 IX. EVOLUTION SINCE DARWIN 233 X. THE FUTURE EVOLUTION OF MAN 249 XI. SCIENCE AND THE BOOK 274 INDEX 293 APPENDIX 299 A FOREWORD Before my window lies an enchanting landscape. It embraces a stretch of open rolling country, beautiful as the eye could wish to rest upon. The sun with its slanting rays is not giving it heat enough in these winter months to make it blossom in its radiant beauty, but the mind goes easily back through the few brown months to the time when the field not far away was waving with its rich yellow grain so soon to be food for those who planted it. Beyond this field lies an orchard where, in regular and orderly rows, stand the apple trees whose bright blossoms in the spring make the landscape so beautiful and whose fruit in the fall serves so richly for our enjoyment. A little farther on, a pasture is filled with sleek-coated cows, feeding quietly and patiently until the evening when they will return to their stalls to yield their rich milk. Still farther on lies a tract of forest. The varied shades of the beeches, the tulip poplars and the chestnuts make an exquisite contrast and give to the landscape its attractive background framed in by a distant hill. Behind this hill flows a mighty river carrying on its breast the ships by which we share the over-abundance of our own blessings with our brothers on the other side of the sea, from whom in turn we receive of their overplus. Beyond this teeming river lies a level stretch of fertile land and then the mighty ocean. On one side of the scene runs a busy highway. Along this men pass and repass, some on foot, others drawn by their patient and submissive horses. Still others are carried by the