The Presidential Address.
81
Camels and Hyaenas have been worked out by Professor
Cope20 and M. Gaudry21 respectively. In Paleontology, as
in every other branch of Biology, the Darwinian theory has
in fact become incorporated as a part of common knowledge;
witness the following extracts from the latest text-book of
Geology published in this country:—"It must be conceded
that on the whole the testimony of the rocks is in favour of
the doctrine of evolution."22 "But to the palaeontologist it
is a matter of the utmost importance to feel assured that,
though he may never be able to trace the missing links in
the chain of being, the chain has been unbroken and per-
sistent from the beginning of geological time."23 "From
this point of view the investigations of Palaeontological
Geology are invested with the profoundest interest, for they
bring before us the history of that living creation of which
we form a part."24
Returning once again to the principles of the selection
theory, we see that every modification of an organism implies
the addition to, or the modification of, some structure or
function already possessed. It is most essential to bear in
mind that Darwin's prime mover, natural selection, acts not
only upon external characters, but likewise upon internal
organisation; minute constitutional or physiological deviations
at present utterly beyond the ken of science, can be seized
upon and perpetuated by this agency when of any advantage
to the possessor. The survival of the fittest is utilitarianism
in excelsis. From the dawn of life upon this earth there must
thus have been on the whole a tendency for living beings to
increase in complexity of structure and function,—a tendency
to a more complete biological division of labour both in indi-
viduals and in races,—a tendency to become more and more
specialised, or, as it is said, to "advance in organisation."
It is almost needless for me to pause here in order to point
20 Amer. Nat., 1880.
21 'Les enchainements du Monde Animal.'
22 Geikie, p. 624.
23 Ibid., p. 020.
24 Ibid., p. 027.
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