Chapter 1728

[←1719]

The Darwinian theory has been so strained, that even Huxley was forced at one time to deprecate its occasional degeneration into “fanaticism.” Oscar Schmidt presents a good instance of a thinker who unconsciously exaggerates the worth of a hypothesis. He admits (The Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism, p. 158), that “natural selection ... is in some cases ... inadequate, ... in others ... not requisite, as the solution of the formation of species is found in other natural conditions.” He also asserts the “intermediate grades are ... wanting, which would entitle us to infer with certainty the direct transition from implacental to placental mammals” (p. 271); that “we are referred entirely to conjecture and inference for the origin of the mammals” (p. 268); and he speaks of the repeated failures of the framers of “hypothetical pedigrees,” more especially of Hæckel, while regarding their attempts as valuable (p. 250). Nevertheless he asserts (p. 194) that “what we have gained by the doctrine of descent based on the theory of selection ... is the knowledge of the connection of organisms as consanguineous beings.” Knowledge, in the face of the above-cited concessions, is, then, the synonym for conjecture and theory only?