The Scientific Evidences of Organic Evolution

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Macmillan and Company, 1882 - 88 стор.

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Сторінка 88 - There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.
Сторінка 76 - ... conceivable supposition that every species of Rhinoceros and every species of Hyaena, in the long succession of forms between the Miocene and the present species, was separately constructed out of dust, or out of nothing, by supernatural power; but until I receive distinct evidence of the fact, I refuse to run the risk of insulting any sane man by supposing that he seriously holds such a notion.
Сторінка 61 - as the white man's rat has driven away the native rat, so the European fly drives away our own ; and as the clover kills our fern, so will the Maori disappear before the white man himself.
Сторінка 49 - A second great fact which strikes us in our general review is, that barriers of any kind, or obstacles to free migration, are related in a close and important manner to the differences between the productions of various regions.
Сторінка 39 - Throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms we constantly meet with organs which are the dwarfed and useless representatives of organs which, in other and allied kinds of animals and plants, are of large size and functional utility. Thus, for instance, the unborn whale has rudimentary teeth, which are never destined to cut the gums ; and we all know that our own rudimentary tail is of no practical service.
Сторінка 3 - That is to say, in every generation of every species a great many more individuals are born than can possibly survive; so that there is in consequence a perpetual battle for life going on among all the constituent individuals of any given generation.
Сторінка 41 - Now, is it a worthy conception of Deity that, while neglecting to maintain his unity of ideal in the case of nearly all the numerous species of snakes, he should have added a tiny rudiment in the case of the Python— and even in that case should have maintained his ideal very inefficiently, inasmuch as only two limbs, instead of four, are represented...
Сторінка 9 - Once admit the glaringly illogical principle that we may assume the operation of higher causes where the operation of lower ones is sufficient to explain the observed phenomena, and all our science and all our philosophy are scattered to the winds. For the Law of Logic which Sir William Hamilton called the Law of Parsimony — or the law which forbids us to assume the operation of higher causes when lower ones are found sufficient to explain the observed effects — this law constitutes the only...
Сторінка 69 - which forms the fulcrum when standing or walking, is perhaps the most characteristic peculiarity, in the human structure ;" but in an embryo, about an inch in length. Prof. Wyman found "that the great toe was shorter than the others ; and, instead of being parallel to them, projected at an angle from the side of the foot, thus corresponding with the permanent condition of this part in the quadrumana.
Сторінка 38 - ... great departure from the typical form — such as the absence of limbs — without some of the other organs in the body being so far modified as of themselves to indicate, on the supposition of descent with modification, that the animal or plant must have been subject to the modifying influences for a long series of generations. And this combined testimony of a number of organs in the same organism is what the theory of descent would lead us to expect, while the rival theory of design can offer...

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