"THE NEW DARWINSM."

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10148, 22 September 1898, Page 3

"THE NEW DARWINSM."

" The New Darwinism " was the title ol a most interesting paper read by Captain Hntton at the meeting of the Philosophical Institute last night. Captain Hutton began by saying that the new Darwinism was not antagonistic to the old Darwinism, but only an addition to it. Darwin himself had known that his theory was not complete, and the new Darwinism was an attempt to ! complete it. He pointed out the difference I between the neo- Darwinians and the neoLamarckians and the followers of Darwin and the followers of Lamarck, and went on to describe how natural selection was not a sufficient explanation of all the phenomena of evolution. There were certain things which it would not explain. First of these was the existence of what was called nonutilitarian characters, of which he gave a nnmbei ot instances. Another objection was that natural selection did not explain the divergence of species, and the last objection was that it did not explain the origin of the mutual sterility between different species. He thon went on to the additions to the old theory in order to explain how those defects are met by the new Darwinism, which explained the clilTerent forms of isolation and raised it to its proper place in the Darwinian theory. Isolation was a main point in the now Darwinism. As regarded the results of the new Darwinism, it had nothing to do with the origin of variations ; it only explained the processes by which individuals became isolated, and how variations might be accumulated by the processes of selection in certain directions. It was natural selection which had brought about the main progress [in life, but alongside this progress there had i been a great deal of non-progreasive variation due to isolation acting alone. Natural selection had given us pro* gress, isolation had given us variety. Many of the variations due to isolation were of no use to their possessors, but it did not follow that they were no use in the scheme of nature. It was owing largely to the great variety in nature that man had been induced to study natural phenomena, and thus had developed his higher intelleotual and spiritual faculties, and although these characteristics were useless to their possessors they had been useful in the scheme |of nature, and had been expressly designed foi , the education of man. This was the ultimate teaching of the new Darwinism. At the conclusion of the paper, Professor Bickerton moved a hearty vote- of thanks to Captain Hutton for his paper, which, he said, had put many of the points ot evolution much more clearly than they had appeared to him before. Canon Harper seconded the motion, which was carriedT>y acclamation. In reply, Captain Hutton expressed the opinion that if Darwin were alive now he would have agreed with all that had been said in his paper.