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Darwinism no longer flows an undivided stream into the evolutionary ocean; its banks are submerged and offshoots abound, all ultimately reaching the same goal, but by different channels. These reproduced lectures must be read by all who try to keep in touch with the ever-increasing literature of this engrossing subject. Mr. Hutton states that, "in 1887, when the first of these lectures was given, Darwinism was a compact body of doctrine, obscured only by the writings of certain philosophers who imagined that natural selection was a cause of variation." ... "In 1899 things are different. The confusion alluded to has much increased. Conceptions totally irrelevant to Darwinism have been fastened on it, and all kinds of misconceptions have grown up. Indeed, things have fared so badly since Darwin's death, that I have seen it stated that his flock has scattered, and that the great theory he so successfully reared is in danger of falling to pieces."
Mr. Hutton does not belong to the school of Wallace, which enunciates the all-sufficiency of natural selection, but is a "Neo-Darwinian," accepting Darwin's teaching, and supplementing "the theory of natural selection with methods of isolation, which had been either overlooked or had not been brought into sufficient prominence by Mr. Darwin," thus more or less embracing the views of Moritz, Wagner, and Romanes. He joins forces with the pure Darwinians in his position as an opponent of the teaching of the "Neo-Lamarckians."
The reader will notice without surprise the recrudescence of much pure teleology, which is now far from uncommon. Thus we are told, "there are a number of elementary substances in the world which appear to be of no use except to man; for example,
