The Origin of the World According to Revelation and ScienceDawson, John William, Sir
Religion
The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science
Dawson, John William, Sir
Bible and science; Religion and science
variety of circumstances, and so enables it to be widely distributed.
It must be observed here that hardiness and variability of
constitution are more important to extensive distribution than mere
locomotive powers, for matters have evidently been so arranged in
nature that, where the habitat is suitable, colonists will find their
way to it, even in the face of difficulties almost insurmountable. 3.
Constitutional liability to vary is sometimes connected with or
dependent on extreme simplicity of structure, in other cases on a high
degree of intelligence and consequent adaptation to various modes of
subsistence. Those minute, simply organized, and very variable
creatures, the Foraminifera, exemplify the first of these apparent
causes; the crafty wolves furnish examples of the second. 4.
Susceptibility to variation is farther modified by the greater or less
adaptability of the digestive and locomotive organs to varied kinds of
food and habitat. The monkeys, intelligent, imitative, and active, are
nevertheless very limited in range and variability, because they can
comfortably subsist only in forests, and in the warmer regions of the
earth. The hog, more sluggish and less intelligent, has an omnivorous
appetite, and no very special requirements of habitat, and so can vary
greatly and extend over a large portion of the earth. Farther, in
connection with this subject it may be observed that the conditions
favorable to variation are also in the case of the higher animals
favorable to domestication, while it may also be affirmed that, other
things being equal, animals in a domesticated state are much more
liable to vary than those in a wild state, and this independent of
intentional selection. Darwin admits this, and gives many examples of
it.
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