BIOMtD
HIST. Diy.l
QH
367
H824D
1909
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT
Mrs. Frank E. Peabody
for
Dr. Frank E. Peabody
Memorial
\
LA/ t
ANNALS N .Y. ACAD. Sci.
VOLUME XIX, PLATK I.
PLATE I.
BRONZE BUST OF CHARLES DARWIN.
Presented to the American Museum of Natural History
By the New York Academy of Sciences,
12 February, 1909.
[ANNALS N. Y. ACAD. Set., VOL. XIX, No. 1, Part I, pp. 1-40. 31 Ju\y, 1909.]
OH
34,7
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION.,
* - /
BY EDMUND OTIS.HOVEY, Q!L .
Recording Secretary.
By invitation of the New York Academy of Sciences, the friends of
science in New York City and vicinity gathered at the American Museum
of Natural History on Friday, 12 February, 1909, to celebrate the centenary
of the birth of the great English naturalist, Charles Robert Darwin, and the
semi-centennial anniversary of the publication of his epoch making book
"The Origin of Species." In preparation for the celebration, the following
circular was sent out, under date of 31 October, 1908, to the members of the
Academy and its affiliated societies and other selected addresses :
The investigations and publications of Charles Darwin have had a profound
influence upon the progress of science in America as well as in all other parts of the
world, but no important memorial of this great naturalist exists in this country.
The one hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth and the fiftieth anniversary of the
publication of the "Origin of Species" fall within the year 1909, and the Council of
the New York Academy of Sciences proposes that these events be suitably celebrated
on Darwin's birthday, 12 February, 1909, when addresses are to be delivered by
members of the Academy setting forth Darwin's achievements in different depart-
ments of science, and a bronze bust of Darwin is to be unveiled and presented to the
American Museum of Natural History by the president of the Academy and accepted
by the president of the Museum. It is also proposed to hold in connection with the
celebration an exhibition at the Museum of Darwiniana and objects illustrating
Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection and his work in botanical,
zoological and geological research.
A Darwin Memorial Committee to make all arrangements has been appointed
as follows:
E. O. Hovey, Chairman
J. A. Allen
C. W. Beebe
C. L. Bristol
N. L. Britton
H. C. Bumpus
G. N. Calkins
J. McK. Cattell
F. M. Chapman
C. F. Cox
H. E. Crampton
C. B. Davenport
Bashford Dean
A. W. Grabau
W. T. Hornaday
M. A. Howe
J. F. Kemp
F. A. Lucas
l
W. D. Matthew
T. H. Morgan
H. F. Osborn
H. H. Rusby
W. B. Scott
J. J. Stevenson
C. W. Townsend
W. M. Wheeler
E. B. Wilson
2 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The Council considers the coming celebration a fitting occasion -for a general
expression of appreciation of Darwin's life and work and therefore invites all friends
of science in New York and vicinity to join in the proposed commemoration and in
erecting a suitable tribute to Darwin's memory in the Natural History Museum, the
most appropriate place in this metropolis. *****
EDMUND OTIS HOVEY
Secretary, New York Academy of Sciencef
West 77th Street and Central Park, West
CHARLES F. Cox
PRESIDENT
New York, 31 October, 1908
The following invitation was sent out to the members of the American
Museum of Natural History, the New York Zoological Society, the New
York Botanical Garden and sister scientific societies throughout the world,
as well as to all classes of members of the Academy and its affiliated societies :
The New York Academy of Sciences
invites you to attend its
exercises commemorating the
One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of
Charles Darwin
and the
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Publication of
" The Origin of Species "
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park, West, and Seventy-seventh Strest
February the twelfth, nineteen hundred nine
at three o'clock p. m.
On the day of the celebration, the committee charged by the Council
with making arrangements for the event carried out the following programme :
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION
Programme
Presentation to the
American Museum of Natural History
of a
Bronze Bust of Darwin
By CHARLES FINNEY Cox
President of the New York Academy of Sciences
Acceptance on behalf of
the Trustees of the Museum
By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
President of the American Museum of Natural History
Addresses
DARWIN AND GEOLOGY
BY JOHN JAMES STEVEXSON
DARWIN AND BOTANY
BY NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON
DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY
BY HERMON CAREY BUMPUS
In the course of the exercises, the Recording Secretary read greetings
from several societies, including the following cablegram from Professor
Arthur E. Shipley of Christ's College, Cambridge, England:
"Zoologists dining in Darwin's room, Christ's, send greetings to the
Academy."
The Committee was assisted in the earning out of its plans by a special
fund of about SI, 750.00, the subscribers to which were
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Adler, I.
Allis, Edward Phelps, Jr.
Amend, B. J.
Ansbacher, Mrs. A. B.
Arthur, J. C.
Avery, Samuel P.
Baekeland, L. H.
Barren, George D.
Baskerville, Charles
Baugh, Miss M. L.
Beckhard, Martin
Beller, A.
Bessey, Charles E.
van Beuren, F. T.
Bijur, Moses
Birkhahn, Robert C.
Brinsmade, Charles Lyman
Bristol, John I. D.
Britton, N. L.
Brown, Addison
Brown, Edwin H.
Brown, Joseph E.
Bumpus, H. C.
Burgess, T. J. W.
Burroughs, C. W.
Bush, Wendell T.
Chamberlain, Leander T.
Chubb, S. H.
de Coppet, E. J.
Corning, C. R.
Cox, C. F.
Dahlgren, B. E.
Davenport, Charles B.
Davis, William Gilbert
Davis, William T.
Dean, Bash ford
De Witt, William G.
Dinkelspiel, Mrs. PaulineJPrice
Dodge, Cleveland H.
Dodge, Richard E.
Dominick, George F.
Donald, James M.
Doughty, Mrs. Alia
Douglas, James
Dudley, P. H. ,
Dundas, Ralph Wurts
Dunn, Gano
Dwight, Jonathan, Jr.
Earle, F. S.
Emerson, Miss Julia T.
Emmet, Miss L. F.
Estabrook, A. F.
Field, William B. Osgood
Ford, James B.
de Forest, Robert W.
Frissell, A. S.
Greer, David H.
Godfrey, Charles C.
Goodnow, Henry R.
Goodwin, A. C.
Greenwood, Isaac J.
Gregory, W. K.
Halsted, Byron D.
Hammond, J. B.
Haupt, Louis
Hazard, R, G.
Herrman, Mrs. Esther
Herter, Christian A.
Hess, Selmar
Hewins, Miss Nellie P.
Hills, Alfred K.
Holt, Henry
Hornaday, W. T.
Hovey, E. O.
Howe, H. M.
Hubbard, Walter C.
Huntington, Archer M.
Hutter, Karl
Hyde, Frederic E.
Isaacs, Miss Alice M.
Jones, Dwight A.
Kane, John Innes
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION
Kemp, J. F.
Kennedy, John S.
Kinney, Morris
Klein, Edward N. E.
Kraemer, Henry
Kunz, George F.
Lang, H.
Langeloth, J.
Langmann, G.
Levy, Miss Daisy
Liechtenstein, Paul
Lieb, J. W., Jr.
Loeb, Morris
Lowie, Robert H.
Lusk, Graham
Marble, Manton
Matthew, W. D.
McMillin, Emerson
Meltzer, S. J.
Milburn, John G.
Miller, George N.
Mills, D. O.
Munn, John P.
Nesbit, Abram G.
Oettinger, P. J.
Ogilvie, Miss Ida H.
Osborn, Henry F.
Osborn, William Church
Owens, W. W.
Palm, Charles
Parsons, John E.
Peckham, S. F.
Pedersen, Frederick M.
Petrunkevitch, Alexander
Pfordte, O. F.
Phipps, Henry
Pumpelly, Raphael
Ramsperger, Gustavus
Riederer, Ludwig
Robb, J. Hampden
Rusby, H. H.
Russ, Edward
Sachs, Paul J.
Sauter, Fred.
Schniewind, F.
Scrymser, James A.
Senff, Charles H.
Smith, Mrs. Annie Merrill
Smith, E. E.
Stone, Miss Ellen J.
Strauss, Frederick
Streat, James
Tesla, Nikola
Thaw, Benjimin
Thompson, Miss Anna F.
Thorndike, Edward L.
Thome, Samuel
Townsend, C. H.
Tuckerman, Alfred
Tweedy, Mrs. A. B.
Van Tassell, F. L.
Walcott, Charles D.
Walker, James
Warburg, Paul M.
Weiss, Mrs. Samuel W.
White, I. C.
Williams, Henry S.
Wilson, Edmund B.
Woodward, R. S.
The Academy gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of the American
Museum of Natural History in making the exhibition a success. The
exhibition was held from 12 February to 14 March inclusive in the Synoptic
Hall (now known as the Darwin Hall) and the Hall of North American
Forestry of the Natural History Museum, and it consisted of letters, writings
and portraits of Charles Robert Darwin, and exhibits demonstrating various
6 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
aspects of the process of evolution of the human species, of other animals and
of plants, with special reference to the Darwinian principle of natural selec-
tion. The exhibits were assembled and arranged by a subcommittee
under the chairmanship of Professor Henry E. Crampton. The following
general catalogue of the exhibition indicates its plan and scope.
A
VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION
The exhibits demonstrate the results obtained by man with plants and
animals which have been under cultivation or domestication for many
centuries. Beginning with a single original form, or "species," many
different races and types that are stable and breed true from generation to
generation have been produced by a process called technically "artificial
selection." Domesticated and cultivated forms that vary so as to meet the
"artificial" standards of human needs or fancies are kept for breeding
purposes, while the less desired individuals are discarded. Sometimes the
original progenitor of such races still occurs in a wild form, as in the fowls
and pigeons.
Illustrations
1. Races of Indian Corn.
2. Races of Daffodils.
3. Different breeds of domestic fowls, together with their wild
ancestor, the Jungle Fowl.
4. Different breeds of pigeons, with their probable common ancestor,
the Rock Pigeon.
5. Different breeds of dogs.
B
VARIATION IN NATURE
The exhibits illustrate the universal fact of variation of groups of indi-
viduals under natural conditions. The differences between any two in-
dividuals may be very slight — the so called "fluctuating variations" -
or they may be wider, as in the case of "mutations." The Laws of Variation
may be expressed nearly always in precise mathematical form.
Illustrations
1. Races and closely-related species of American Thorn Trees.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 7
2. Fluctuating variations in one species of a clam-like animal, Tellina.
3. Slight differences between and among different types of a kind of
terrestrial snail, Helix.
4. Variable shells of the common scallop, Pecten, arranged also to
show the general law of variation.
5. Varieties of the Tiger Cowry, from Malaysia.
6. "Mutations," or wide "deviations from type," in several species
of birds.
C
STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
The natural rate at which living organisms multiply is so rapid that only
a small portion of the individuals which begin life can survive in the struggle
for existence. The elimination of the unfit and the survival of only the fit
are the results of the many-sided warfare in which all organisms must engage
because of over-multiplication. Nevertheless, a form that has been intro-
duced into a ne\v locality may spread with remarkable rapidity, owing to a
partial suspension of selection brought about by the exemption of the form
from the severe struggle for existence under the conditions of its original
habitat.
Illustrations
1 . A demonstration of the results of the normal rapid rate of multi-
plication under the supposition that no elimination takes place
— results which could not be produced in nature.
2. The Water Hyacinth, a plant which has been introduced into
Florida, a new habitat, where it has multiplied at such a rate
as to choke the streams.
3. A map showing the area of distribution of the English Sparrow
in the year 1886, twenty-two years after its introduction into
Xorth America.
4. A map showing the spread of the Potato-Bug, during successive
decades.
5. A demonstration of the struggle for existence of young plants
grown from seeds planted in areas that overlap.
6. Photographs of the conditions in forests, where low-shrubbery is
prevented from growing because of the lack of light in the
shade of the large trees.
7. A group showing the Meadow-Mouse and its natural enemies
and food-organisms; a demonstration of the complexity of the
struggle for existence.
8 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
D
INSTINCTS
The "mental" operation of lower orders of animals, termed instinctive
reactions, are well exemplified by the nest-building habits of birds and
insects. The materials employed and the character of the nests display the
adaptive nature of the instinctive adjustments to different environmental
conditions. The behavior of crustaceans like the Spider-Crab illustrates
another peculiar instinctive habit.
Illustrations
1. Nests of various species of birds.
2. Nests of various social insects.
3. A Spider-Crab allowed to decorate itself with various natural
objects, so as to be inconspicuous through its resemblance to
its surroundings.
4. The death-feigning instinct in Bluebirds.
E
NATURAL SELECTION AND COLORATION
Some striking results of the survival of the fittest are found in the adaptive
coloration of several kinds of animals. Many organisms harmonize in
color and form with their environment, others mimic natural objects of
various kinds, gaining similar protection by such resemblances.
Illustrations
1. The Leaf -Butterflies and other insects, illustrating various kinds
of protective resemblances and coloration.
2. Protective resemblance and color-adaptation in the Sargassum-
Fish and other lower vertebrates.
3. The uses of color in various species of birds.
4. A group showing the seasonal changes in the coloration of the
Ptarmigan.
F
HYBRIDISM
When differing but related forms of animals or plants are crossed, the
hybrid offspring may resemble one parent in some features, and the other
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 9
parent in different characteristics. Sometimes the hybrid offspring will
exhibit "reversion," that is, it will differ from both its parents, and will
resemble a remote ancestral form. The laws of inheritance have been
much more adequately formulated since the time of Darwin, as in the case
of Mendelian inheritance.
Illustrations
1. Specimens of hybrid plants together with their parents.
2. Examples of hybrid fowls.
3. The Darwinian instance of reversion in fowls.
4. The results of hybridization in mammalia.
6
THE FOSSIL RECORD
Following the identification by geologists of the relatively old and the
relatively recent layers of rocks, the remains of animals and plants of earlier
ages of the earth demonstrate the occurrence at first of simpler organisms,
and the successive appearance of more and more complex groups. Some-
times the fossils constitute a comparatively complete series of ancestral
species leading to modern kinds, as in the Horse and many invertebrates.
Illustrations
1. A series of specimens of fossil plants showing the succession of
their appearance upon the earth.
2. The general succession of invertebrate groups.
- 3. The evolution of cephalopodous mollusks, — Nautiloid and
Ammonitoid types.
4. TJie evolution of several snail or gasteropod types :
a) Fulgur series.
6) Fusus series,
c) Paludina series.
5. The evolution of Lamp-Shells, or Brachiopods, as exemplified by
Spirifer mucronatus.
6. Specimens of fossil-bearing rocks showing unmodified and meta-
morphosed conditions. In the latter case the fossils are
destroyed.
7. The evolution of the Horse.
8. The evolution of the Camel.
10 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
H
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
Few organisms occur uniformly throughout the various continental areas
of the earth. In general, land types differ more or less widely according to
the degree of proximity of the areas where they occur, and their differences
are usually regarded as due to their adaptation to the unlike natural condi-
tions of different areas.
Illustrations
1. Specimens of the larger fungi as examples of invariable boreal
and tropical plants.
2. The Land Tortoise of the Galapagos Islands, a form which is
peculiar to this entirely isolated group of islands.
3. Several kinds of Ground-Squirrels from different localities in the
United States.
4. Land Snails from valleys of the Society Islands, in the South
Pacific Ocean. Each island possesses characteristic forms,
and the different valleys of one and the same island often
contain unique forms.
I
PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION
Resemblances displayed by different species of animals and plants are
regarded as indications of common ancestry. It is therefore possible to
classify organisms in a tree-like diagrammatic manner, into larger and
smaller groups according to their fundamental similarities. The principle
seems to be universal for all plants and all animals.
Illustrations
1. Living specimens of Cactus plants.
2. A typical series of Crustacea.
J
PRINCIPLES OF HOMOLOGY
Parts of organisms presenting the same fundamental plan of construction,
though they differ in function, are spoken of as "homologous."
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 11
Illustrations
1. Mammalian limbs adapted for use in various ways, though they
exhibit the same kind of skeletal framework.
2. Specimens illustrating the different forms of leaves of the ferns
and their relatives.
K
PRINCIPLES OF EMBRYOLOGY
When an animal develops, it passes gradually from its early stages with
their simple construction to the progressively complex stages of later and
adult life. During this process, it closely resembles in an embryonic condi-
tion an adult organism of a lower order. The general principle of develop-
ment is that an embryonic series of stages exhibited by any animal is a
brief review or recapitulation of the ancestral history of its kind.
Illustrations
1. Models and specimens displaying the gill-slits of chick embryos,
and their correspondence with the gill-slits of fishes.
2. Models showing the blood-vessels and the hearts of different
classes of vertebrates, and some of the corresponding embryonic
stages in the development of the heart in man.
3. Preparations showing the occurrence in a chick embryo of a
primitive body-support, the notochord, which occurs in the
adult in Amphioxus, a primitive relative of the vertebrates,
and in vertebrates.
4. Models showing the development of the human brain, and its
resemblance at various stages to the adult brains of lower
mammalia.
5. The third eye or pineal body of an adult lizard, and the corre-
sponding vestige in the embryonic human brain.
L
RUDIMENTARY AND VESTIGIAL ORGANS
Vestigial organs are remnants of once-useful parts, that have undergone
regressive evolution. Rudimentary structures often occur in some forms,
while in related species they reach a far higher degree of development.
12 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Illustrations
1. A Prickly-pear Cactus and a New Zealand Bramble showing
reduced leaves.
2. Insects exhibiting rudimentary and vestigial organs.
M
INSECT-EATING PLANTS AND CLIMBING PLANTS
These plants display two different kinds of adaptations — one in respect
to nutrition and the other in respect to the development of structures to
afford support.
N
FERTILIZATION IN PLANTS
The exhibit demonstrates the peculiar nature of the process of fertiliza-
tion, and the special mechanisms that these organisms have developed to
bring about fertilization in various ways. The processes are adjusted
intimately to the visits made by insects to flowers for nourishment.
0
THE DESCENT OF MAN
The general principles of evolution hold true for the attainment by the
human species of its present place in nature. The exhibits demonstrate in
a general manner the various stages reached by organisms nearly related to
man, which the human species has surpassed.
Illustrations
1. A series of primate animals from the Lemurs to Man.
2. A series of crania of primate mammals, showing the gradual
enlargement of the brain case and the relative reduction of the
jaws.
3. A series of casts and models of the brains of various primates,
showing the progressive evolution of the brain, and especially
of the cerebrum.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 13
DARWINIANA
Loaned by MR. CHARLES F. Cox.
1. Page from original manuscript of "Descent of Man." Text of part of
Page 309, Chapter VIII, Volume I. 1st edition, 1871.
2. Page from original manuscript of "Descent of Man." Text of part
of Page 183, Chapter V, Volume I. 1st edition, 1871.
3. Two pages from the original manuscript of "Descent of Man." Text
of part of Pages 42-43, Chapter II, Volume I. 1st edition, 1871.
4. Page from the personal journal of Charles Danvin, kept while on the
"Beagle Voyage," 1831-1836.
5. Sixteen autograph letters. Miscellaneous.
6. Complete collection of letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 1855-1880.
7. Letters to Albany Hancock, 1849-1854. (Concerning the discovery of
the parasitical or cornplemental male Cirripedes.)
BOOKS
8. Researches in Natural History. 1st edition, 1839.
9. Researches in Natural History and Geology. 2nd edition, 1845.
2 copies.
10. Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle. Edited by Charles Darwin.
London, 1840. 3 vols.
11. Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. 1st edition, 1842.
12. The Structure of Coral Reefs. 2nd edition, 1874.
13. Observations on Volcanic Islands. 1st edition, 1844.
14. Observations on Coral Islands. 2nd edition, 1876.
15. Coral Reefs, Volcanic Islands, South America. United edition, 1851.
16. Geological Observations on South America. 1st edition, 1846.
17. Monograph on the Cirripedia, — Lepadidse. 1st edition, 1851.
18. Monograph on the Cirripedia, — Balanidae. 1st edition, 1854.
19. Fossil Lepadida? and Balanidae. 1st edition, 1851-1854.
20. "The Origin of Species." One of the 1250 copies of the 1st edition,
November 24, 1859.
21. On the Origin of Species. 1st edition, 1859.
22. On the Origin of Species. 2nd edition, 1860. 2 copies.
23. On the Origin of Species. 3rd edition, 1861.
24. On the Origin of Species. 4th edition, 1866.
25. On the Origin of Species. 5th edition, 1869.
26. On the Origin of Species. 6th edition, 1882.
14 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
27. Naturalist's Voyage Round the World. 1st edition, 1860.
28. The Fertilization of Orchids. 1st edition, 1862.
29. The Fertilization of Orchids. 2nd edition, 1877.
30. On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 1st edition, 1865.
31. On the Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. 2nd edition, 1875.
2 copies.
32. Animals and Plants under Domestication. 1st edition, 1868. 2 vols.
33. Animals and Plants under Domestication. 2nd edition, 1875. 2 vols.
34. The Descent of Man. 1st edition, 1871. 2 vols. 3 copies.
35. The Descent of Man. 2nd edition, 1874. 2 copies.
36. On the Expression of the Emotions. 1st edition, 1872.
37. On Insectivorous Plants. 1st edition, 1875.
38. Cross and Self Fertilization of Plants. 1st edition, 1876.
39. Cross and Self Fertilization of Plants. 2nd edition, 1888.
40. The Different Forms of Flowers. 1st edition, 1877.
41. The Movements of Plants. By Charles and Francis Darwin. 1st
edition, 1880.
42. Vegetable Mould and Earth-worms. 1st edition, 1881.
43. Vegetable Mould and Earth-worms. 1882.
WORKS TO WHICH CHARLES DARWIN CONTRIBUTED OR WHICH CONTAIN
WRITINGS OF HIS NOT ELSEWHERE PUBLISHED.
44. Voyages of the Adventure and the Beagle. 3 vols. & appendix.
London, 1839. Volume III by Charles Darwin.
45. The Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry. London, 1849. " Geol-
ogy" by Charles Darwin.
46. Flowers and their Unbidden Guests. By Kerner. London, 1878.
Prefatory letter by Charles Darwin.
47. Life of Erasmus Darwin. London, 1879. Prefatory notice by C.
Darwin.
48. Prehistoric Europe. By James Geikie. London, 1881. Quotes
letters from Charles Darwin on Southampton gravels.
49. Studies in the Theory of Descent. By Weismann. London, 1882.
Prefatory note by Charles Darwin.
50. The Fertilization of Flowers. By Miiller. London, 1883. Preface
by Charles Darwin.
51. Mental Evolution in Animals. By Romanes. New York, 1884.
Posthumous essay on "Instinct" by Charles Darwin.
52. Darwinism. By Alfred Russel Wallace. London, 1889.
53. "Miscellaneous and Hitherto Uncollected Writings of Charles Darwin."
Compiled by C. F. Cox, New York, 1904.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 15
54. "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin." Edited by his son Francis
Darwin. Original edition, 1886. Extra-illustrated with more than
400 portraits, autograph letters, etc.
55. "More Letters of Charles Darwin." Edited by his son Francis
Darwin. Original edition, 1903. Extra-illustrated with about 200
portraits.
56. "Pedigree of the Family of Darwin." Compiled by H. Burke, Esq.,
F. S. A., 1888.
57. Catalogue of the Library of Charles Darwin, now in the Botany .School,
Cambridge. •
58. Portrait. Photograph from life by,Maull & Fox, about 1854, print
from recently restored negative.
59. Portrait. Photograph from life by Maull & Fox, about 1854. Print
from recently restored negative.
60. Portrait. Proof of wood-engraving, made in 1889 by G. Kruell,
after photograph made from life by Maull & Fox, about 1854.
61. Portrait. Woodcut from "Harper's Magazine" of October, 1884, after
photograph from life by Maull & Fox, about 1854.
62. Portrait. Photograph from life by Mrs. Cameron, 1868.
63. Portrait. Engraving on steel by C. H. Jeens, published in "Nature,"
June 4, 1874, from photograph from life by O. J. Rejlander, about
1870.
64. Portrait. Woodcut from "London Graphic" of July 29, 1882, after
photograph from life by O. G. Rejlander, about 1870.
65. Portrait. Proof of wood-cut from "Century Magazine" of January,
1883, after photograph by Capt. Darwin, about 1874.
66. Portraits. Two copies (one loaned by President H. F. Osborn) of
proof etching by G. Mercier, published 1890, after the painting
made from life in 1875 by W. Ouless, R. A.
67. Portrait. Woodbury-type from photograph from life by Lock &
Whitfield. Published in "Men of Mark" by Sampson, Low &
Co., 1876.
68. Portrait. Proof etching by Leopold Flameng, published 1883, after
painting from life by Hon. John Collier, made for the Linnsean
Society in 1881.
69. Portrait. Proof wood-engraving, made in 1889 by G. Kruell, after a
photograph made from life by Elliott & Fry, 1881.
70. Portraits. Three photographs from life, by Elliott & Fry, 1881.
71. Portrait. Engraving by S. Hollyer, after photograph from life by
Elliott & Fry, 1881.
72. Portrait. (Property of H. F. Osborn.)
16 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
73. Portraits of Darwin's contemporaries. Eighty transparencies.
74. Interior of Darwin's Library. (Property of H. F. Osborn.)
The exercises of the afternoon were held around the bust as a center.
The President of the Academy, Mr. Charles F. Cox, called the meeting to
order at about a quarter after three o'clock and delivered the following
address :
THE INDIVIDUALITY OF CHARLES DARWIN.
BY CHARLES F. Cox.
We are assembled, at the invitation of an organization devoted to the
dissemination of scientific knowledge, under the hospitable roof of an
institution maintained for the promotion of systematic observation, for the
purpose of honoring the memory of one of the greatest of seers. Charles
Darwin, whose birthday we celebrate, was a man of the clearest mental
vision born into a generation scientifically blind. He first, of those in his
day accounted wise, was able to see all nature unfolding according to uni-
form and verifiable law. The outlook of other men called by his contem-
poraries scientists and philosophers was, as a rule, limited and obscured by
a narrowing and hampering doctrine of supernatural intervention. It is
hard for us, who are privileged to contemplate with admiring minds the
harmonious interrelations of all natural phenomena, to realize that only
fifty years ago it was commonly regarded as both irrational and immoral to
believe that one great principle underlay the origin, maintenance, diversifica-
tion and development of living forms and that that principle was discov-
erable through human investigation. During the ages previous to the
memorable year 1859 a few bold thinkers, now and then, had ventured to
suggest a theory of general evolution, but they had failed to supply it with a
substantial foundation of proof, or to assign to it a reasonable and intelligible
cause, and had been, consequently, one and all, overwhelmed and sup-
pressed by the powerful and prevalent dogma of special creation. Natura-
lists had been for centuries active in the collection of facts, but, until Darwin
came, the various attributes and activities of living things remained discon-
nected and unexplained. Indeed, it was impossible that they should have
been correlated and elucidated as long as the domain of science was in
thralldom to tyrannical authority and originality of thought was little less
than a crime. For a hundred years prior to Darwin even professed students
of nature were not free to see what lay under their very eyes. The scientific
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 17
world was awaiting a liberator. Finally the revolution was proclaimed and
the first decisive blow struck by the publication of "The Origin of Species"
on the twenty-fourth of November, 1859. It was no hasty and ill-considered
stroke. Events had been shaping themselves to this end since the twenty-
seventh of December, 1831, when the little brig Beagle sailed from Plymouth
harbor, bearing the unknown and youthful Charles Darwin to the discovery
of a new world — not, however, an unexplored continent to be claimed for
commerce and civilization, but a vastly greater and more valuable realm of
thought to be opened to knowledge and conquered for intellectual freedom.
Darwin, like the prophets of old, in preparation for his exalted mission,
betook himself to the uninhabited wilderness, away from the domination of
other minds, in order that he might draw inspiration from untrammeled and
clarifying communion with nature. In his narrow cabin on the broad
Atlantic, on the desert plains of Patagonia, on desolate and unpeopled
islands of the Pacific, in the dark and solemn forests of the tropics, and on
the summits of the bleak and barren Andes he gained the coveted prize of
wisdom which had been denied him in the populous halls of two great
universities, where his free spirit had rebelled against the rigid conven-
tionality of classical education.
Although a born investigator, he had been driven and harassed for four-
teen years by unthinking instructors devoid of both the ability and the
disposition to consider his natural endowments and inclinations and who,
with one or two exceptions, according to his own later judgment, wasted
their time upon an unappreciative and discouraging pupil. He says of
himself that he was slow in learning, but a review of his productive life
clearly shows that, if he was dull in any respect, it was solely in the matter
of accepting ideas at second hand. It happened, merely, that what most
of his teachers were prepared to impart he was not constituted to receive;
and so one of the acutest observers the world has ever known was thought to
be inattentive and unreceptive. During all the school days of his childhood,
passed in his native town of Shrewsbury, not only were his superb mental
gifts wholly unrecognized, but no attempt was ever made to find out if he
had any such gifts. He spent seven useless years at Dr. Butler's so-called
"great school," but, apparently, the head master never came to know his
talented pupil, for the educational system which prevailed in that institution
had no reference to "the discovery of the exceptional man." The one
ceaseless effort of his schoolmasters was to crowd him into the common mold.
Receiving no sympathy and little assistance from those who should
have been the guides and advisers of his boyhood, he developed "a strong
taste for long solitary walks" and cultivated the habit of stealing time for
more or less surreptitious collecting in several departments of natural history.
18 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Thus he became, in all important respects, self-taught and, driven to his own
resources, his natural inclination to consider his path of life as lying far aside
from the common highway was confirmed and strengthened. This sense of
solitariness followed him to the end of his life and was, no doubt, an impor-
tant factor in the formation and preservation of his extraordinary individ-
uality and faith in his own powers. Darwin's followers may therefore bless
even the obtuseness and shortsightedness of his preceptors who failed to spoil
him by their unwise treatment.
When, in 1825, Doctor Robert Darwin concluded that his son Charles
was lacking in natural aptitude for scholarship, he sent him to Edinburgh
University, intending that he should follow in the footsteps of his father
and of his grandfather by becoming a physician. But here, again, the
young man found himself unable to receive what was offered him on the
strength of ancient authority. The instruction dispensed in that hoary
institution was, to him, perfunctory and uninspiring and he was once more
forced to seek the real enlargement of his knowledge by self-directed methods.
In this way he appears to have obtained, at Edinburgh, some sort of ac-
quaintance with the fundamental principles of scientific research, but, as
the learning thus acquired was not in the line of his intended profession, it
was not appreciated by his family and friends. Accordingly, after two
sessions spent at that university, it was decided that his regular studies
had been entirely misdirected and he was therefore withdrawn and sent to
Cambridge. There he was still worse misguided in the endeavor to educate
him in theology. Again was repeated the old story of an uncongenial
curriculum ostensibly conformed to but in reality shirked and avoided in
favor of natural history privately followed by side paths. The unwilling
student wished to be obedient to his father's direction, but native bent
proved stronger than conventional rule — the call of destiny louder than the
voice of filial duty.
His father, in most things a wise man, saw in his son's insect- and bird-
hunting proclivity a tendency to the life of "an idle sporting man" and
was sorely grieved and disappointed when he was obliged to concede the
failure of his plan to connect the house of Darwin with the Church of England.
Fortunately, however, the troublesome student came under the influence, at
Cambridge, of a teacher endowed with more than ordinary discernment and,
in this particular matter, with somewhat unusual independence and courage
and he took the budding naturalist and his lawless pursuits under his patron-
age and protection. To the faith and friendship of Professor J. S. Henslow
Darwin was indebted for his appointment to the Beagle expedition, and to
Professor Henslow, who robbed the church to enrich science, the world owes
an incalculable debt of gratitude for the discovery, if not for the development,
of one of its loftiest geniuses.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 19
Others besides Henslow, however, contributed to the fixation of
Darwin's inborn talents and abilities, but Darwin never admitted that
he received, either at Edinburgh or at Cambridge, any thing like syste-
matic mental training. He was, from the beginning of his school davs to
the end of his university life, a person set apart for individual preparation
for a special and peculiar career. When he bade farewell to Christ's College,
Cambridge, in the summer of 1831, his actual education was yet to be ac-
quired, but not through human instruction. He has himself declared:
"I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or educa-
tion of my mind."
It wras therefore no professional scientist who eagerly accepted the
unsalaried post of naturalist to the Beagle expedition around the world,
but a modest,' though confident, youth of twenty-two whose most impor-
tant article of outfit was the first volume of the first edition of Lyell's "Prin-
ciples of Geology," which had been published the year before, the second
volume of which was not issued until after Darwin had reached South
America. Thus it was providentially ordered that during the formative
period covered by this epoch-making voyage, Darwin should remain as free
as possible from human influences. If, instead of proceeding, raw as he
was, directly from the seclusion of the university to the isolation of the
voyage, he had directed his steps to the metropolis and had there mingled
with the leaders in scientific thought, it is quite possible, if not probable,
that he would have fallen under their authority and would have accepted
the orthodox beliefs of his time. If that had been the case, we might be
dominated to-day by the prohibitive doctrine of the immutability of species,
instead of enjoying that freedom of thought and liberty of investigation to
which Darwin made us heirs. But, happily for the intellectual world,
during the five years which Darwin spent on the Beagle, under the intimate
tutelage of mother nature, he laid, for our benefit, as well as for his own,
the solid foundations of his never failing habit of mind in which open-eyed
teachableness ever supplemented unwavering honesty of purpose and fear-
lessness of approach.
After Darwin's return from the circumnavigation of the globe, he re-
sided, for a little more than five years, in London, and that was the only
portion of his life during which he was in actual personal contact with any
considerable number of his fellowmen. Even then, however, he was mostly
engaged with his own thoughts, for he was arranging his collections and
preparing for publication the results of his observations made while on the
Beagle voyage. It was at the very beginning of this residence in London
(July, 1837), while the things he had seen in South America and the Pacific
Islands were still fresh in his memory that he opened his first note-book
20 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
for facts in relation to the origin of species, about which he says he "had
long reflected." For twenty-two years thereafter Mr. Darwin continued to
pursue this revolutionizing subject with unexampled patience and, except
as to two or three intimate friends, entirely within the privacy of his own
mind.
In September, 1842, he went into retirement at Down, an out-of-the-
way village in Kent. There, partly compelled by ill-health, he dwelt as a
recluse for forty years, serenely contemplating nature and diligently gather-
ing information, but seldom emerging into the world from which his richly-
stored and phenomenally creative intellect had little to gain but to which it
never ceased to give, during the remainder of his life. Bare knowledge he
welcomed from any source, but opinions and deductions he invariably
produced for himself. What he wrote to H. W. Bates, who complained
of a want of advice is true of Darwin himself: "Part of your great originality
of views," he said, "may be due to the necessity of self-exertion of thought."
What has been said by his son Francis is equally true of Mr. Darwin — one
of his most striking characteristics was "that supreme power of seeing and
thinking what the rest of the world had overlooked."
Mr. Darwin was what we are accustomed to call a genius, but I know
of no good definition of a genius but a man of insight. The person who by
his natural acuteness of perception is able to see into and through problems
which to other men are baffling or insoluble, has the highest right to be con-
sidered inspired. Darwin's wonderful endowment in this respect constituted
him, by divine right, a leader of men. The world has always justly honored
its standard bearers and we are here to pay homage to the name of one of
the most attractive and commanding of them all. In other parts of this city
and of this land, our fellow-citizens are gathering to-day to pay grateful
tribute to the estimable character, and to recall the memorable deeds of a
great emancipator. We likewise are celebrating the beneficent acts of a
man, simple and modest as that other, who, at a critical period, spoke
courageous words which conferred freedom on millions of his fellow creatures.
It is altogether fitting that the birthdays of these two benefactors should be
the same.
We now dedicate this monument, in this appropriate place, not only to
the honor and memory of Charles Darwin the great thinker, whose life and
personality we admire, but also to the encouragement and guidance of all
who may hereafter frequent these halls — as a testimony to the power of
self-reliance and independence of mind which Charles Darwin preeminently
exemplified and illustrated. May this portrait of a noble truth-seeker which
we now unveil, signify, for all time to come, to him who would advance the
boundaries of scientific knowledge, that nature will yield up her secrets only
when appealed to directly and in humility and purity of spirit.
ANNALS N. Y. ACAD. Sci.
VOLUME XIX, PLATE II.
PLATE II.
THE ACADEMY BUST OF DARWIN.
Right side of the model.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 21
At the close of his address, President Cox gave the signal for unveiling
the bust,1 and turning to President Henry Fairfield Osborn said
President Osborn:
On behalf of the New York Academy of Sciences, I have the honor of
presenting this bust to the American Museum of Natural History and of
asking your acceptance of it, in the hope that it may stand in this place for
many generations to come as evidence of the high esteem in which the life
and work of Charles Darwin are held by the men of science of this country,
and also as a token of the cordial relations existing between the Academy of
Sciences and the Museum of Natural History, which you yourself have done
much to establish and promote.
In response to the address of President Cox and the presentation of the
bust, President Osborn replied as follows:
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PORTRAIT OF DARWIN.
BY HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN,
President of the American Museum of Natural History.
The bronze bust of Charles Darwin presented by the New York Academy
of Sciences is accepted by the Trustees of the American Museum of Natural
History with a three-fold meaning.
First, as a noble work of art conveying in its fidelity of portraiture a
striking likeness of the great naturalist, with the far-seeing vision of his deep-
set eyes controlled by a great brain in which the powers of observation and
of reason were developed far beyond the average. Personal recollection of
Darwin's face and head strengthens the first impression that this latest
work of William Couper will be welcomed by naturalists everywhere as a
singularly grand and impressive likeness.
The second reason why this gift is welcome is that it memorializes in a
manner most grateful to the Trustees and Scientific Staff of this Museum
that the scientific men of New York appreciate the work that is being carried
on here for the promotion of natural science, that the combination of muni-
1 The bust is of bronze, of heroic size, and is mounted upon a pedestal of polished
gneissoid granite from Stony Creek, Connecticut. The bust was prepared expressly for the
Academy by the New York sculptor William Couper from photographs and other data.
The portrait represents the naturalist in the full maturity of his powers and rather past mid-
dle life.
22 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
cipal and private munificence with the ardor of exploration and research
and devotion to public scientific education for which this institution stands
meets the approval and support of the members of the New York Academy
of Sciences, the oldest and most dignified of all the scientific associations in
this great city. This gift will encourage the Museum to renewed efforts
both in the sphere of pure science and in the'sphere of popular education.
Finally the gift is welcome because it permanently associates the name of
the great naturalist with the Museum and especially with one of our newer
exhibition halls, which is especially devoted to the exposition of the great
general phenomena of biology, as seen in the structure, the embryonic
development, the adaptness in color and form, the marvelous diversity
but yet unity of the animal world, to the true interpretation of which Charles
Darwin devoted his life.
Further to cement the name and spirit of Darwin with the exhibition in
the midst of which this splendid portrait will be placed, it gives me great
pleasure to announce that the Trustees have unanimously voted to name
this hall after the illustrious naturalist, "Darwin Hall," and have prepared
and placed here on this centennial day two bronze tablets which will be a
permanent record of the time and place of this dedication.
At the close of President Osborn's address the following addresses were
delivered, setting forth Danvin's relations to the three subdivisions of
natural science — geology, botany and zoology — in pursuit of which he
expended his great energies.
DARWIN AND GEOLOGY.
BY PROFESSOR JOHN JAMES STEVENSON.
Charles Darwin was born in a time of intellectual unrest. Explorers,
students of chemistry and workers in mines had been adding to actual
knowledge for nearly one third of a century and thoughtful men had been
forced to recognize the worthlessness of many conceptions which had long
passed current. Nowhere was this unrest more manifest than among the
younger geologists; but they were compelled to express themselves cautiously
for, fettered by a false chronology, the church dignitaries who controlled
the universities rebuked investigation and branded as infidels those who
recorded obnoxious facts. Little more than a year prior to Danvin's birth,
the Geological Society of London had been founded as a protest against
subjective study of this globe, but already many adherents to the principles
PLATE III.
THE ACADEMY BUST OF DARWIN.
Left side of the model.
ANNALS N . Y. ACAD. Sci .
VOLUME XIX, PLATE III,
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 23
of that society had appeared on the continent, proclaiming that actual
knowledge of conditions must precede attempts to explain them.
The development of opinion was so rapid that before Darwin reached
his majority the geological pendulum had made its great swing from the
doctrine of cataclysms to that of uniformity; from the belief that this globe
is less than 6,000 years old to an abiding faith that its age cannot be measured
in years. It was amid such conditions that, toward the close of his univer-
sity studies, he came under the influence of Henslow and Sedgwick, the
latter being engaged at that time along with Murchison in an effort to unravel
the tangle of Welsh geology. Some have said that these men taught him
how to observe; not so, he was already a keen observer, and thev merely
led him into wider fields.
In 1831, Captain Fitzroy was assigned to command H. M. S. Beagle,
a little brig of 240 tons, and was commissioned to complete the coast survey
of southern South America as well as to run a line around the globe. When
he expressed the wish to be accompanied by a naturalist, Darwin, then only
twenty-two years old, promptly volunteered his services, which were ac-
cepted, and he was enrolled as a supernumerary member of the staff. The
Beagk left England on December 27, 1831, and returned on October 2,
1836, bringing with it Charles Darwin, now grown intellectually to man's
stature and bearing a notable cargo of material collections, as well as of
accumulated observations. There was no haste in publication; aside from
some very brief communications to societies, nothing appeared until 1839,
when the Journal of Researches was printed. Owen's descriptions of the
fossil mammalia were issued in 1840, with an introduction by Darwin, and
the final publication of results was made in three, parts, dated 1842, 1844,
and 1846. Thus early in his career, Darwin showed that caution which
characterized him throughout life, an indifference to priority which was the
outgrowth of his love of accuracy.
Part 2 of the "Geological Observations," dated 1844, relates chiefly
to volcanic islands. In most cases the stay at those was brief and the
studies were fragmentary; yet Darwin saw enough to let him discuss the
origin of volcanic cones, to determine some cardinal points respecting the
distribution of the islands, to distinguish submarine from subaerial lava
flows and to prove that experimental studies on metamorphosis of limeMones
had led to very nearlv true conceptions of the process.
As the coast survey of southern South America was the important object
of Captain Fitzroy's expedition, there was ample time for a good reconnais-
sance of that region and Darwin spent nearly six months in studying the
pampas from the Parana and Uraguay rivers southward almost to Magellan's
Strait. A synopsis was given as an introduction to Owen's memoir, but the
24 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
details did not appear until 1846, when they were published as Part 3]of the
"Geological Observations." The whole subject was discussed attractively
in the second edition of the Journal of Researches.
The superficial deposit of the great plains is a "reddish argillaceous
earth," containing concretions of indurated marl, which at times become
continuous layers or even replace much of the red earth. In the northerly
part of the plains area, this pampas deposit, which passes downward into
sands, limestones and clays of late Tertiary age, yielded no marine shells to
Darwin; its infusoria, studied by Ehrenberg, proved to be partly marine,
partly freshwater, while the marly concretions resemble some freshwater
limestones seen in Europe; but this paucity of invertebrate life was unim-
portant, for the whole of that region proved to be one vast cemetery, in which
the skeletons of gigantic extinct mammals are so numerous that a line could
not be drawn in any direction without passing through some bones. In
northern Patagonia the red deposit is bound closely to an overlying gravel,
containing marine forms belonging to species now existing on the coast,
while in southern Patagonia marine shells occur in the pampas deposit itself.
Darwin believed that this pampas material was deposited within a vast
estuary, into which great rivers carried from the surrounding region carcasses
of the animals whose skeletons were entombed in muds tranquilly accumu-
lating on the bottom. All conditions go to show that the mammalia became
extinct after the sea had received its present fauna, and there is nothing to
suggest that a period of overwhelming violence swept away and destroyed
the inhabitants of the land; everything supports the contrary belief. The
only noteworthy change in conditions has been a gradual elevation of the
continent; but that was not enough to modify the climate or to bring about
a change in the land fauna.
Several of the important genera collected by Darwin had been found
in North America long prior to his time. This similarity of the Quaternary
faunas induced him to speculate on the causes which had divided the Amer-
can continent into two well-defined and somewhat contrasting zoological
provinces. He does not hesitate to suggest recent elevation of the Mexican
platform or, more probably, recent submergence of the West Indian Archi-
pelago as a conceivable cause of this separation. It seems to him most
probable that the elephants, the mastodons, the horses and the hollow-
horned ruminants of North America "migrated, on land since submerged
near Bering Straits, from Siberia into North America, and thence, on land
since submerged in the West Indies, into South America, where for a time
they mingled with forms characteristic of that southern continent and have
since become extinct." Had this American Museum of Natural History
existed in Darwin's day, study of the remarkable exhibits in its Mammal
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 25
Hall would have enabled him to extend his list of extinct forms common to
both continents; and possibly he might have anticipated some of the all-
important generalizations for which the world is indebted to the former
president of this academy who now is president of the museum.
Nothing in South America, east or west, escaped Darwin; from glaciers
to peat bogs, from earthquakes to climatal variations, everything was im-
portant; but what impressed him most on both sides of the continent were
the evidences of extremely slow secular movement in the earth's cmst.
This was the preparation for that study of the coral islands which resulted
in his chief contribution to philosophical geology.
Many voyagers prior to 1833 had observed and had tried to account
for the strange atolls, or low ring-like coral reefs, each inclosing a lagoon
which communicates with the sea by a narrow channel; but Darwin dis-
covered other forms of reefs which were equally perplexing. Many islets
of rock are fringed by coral growth, while vast barrier reefs, separated from
the land by channels of varying depth, extend at times for hundreds of miles
along coasts. All explanations by previous observers were defective, as they
seemed to ignore these types as well as other features, not less important.
Reef- making corals can not endure exposure to the air and they can
not thrive at a depth of more than 20 fathoms, so that their vertical range
is about 115 feet; yet hooks and anchors brought up coral rock and sand
from many hundreds of feet below the limit of growth; in a great number
of instances, the atolls or ring-like reefs are mere peaks rising with abrupt
slopes from "fathomless" abysses. Coral-bearing areas within the Indian
and Pacific Oceans are of vast extent, there being chains of archipelagos
1,000 to 1,500 miles long. The reefs are rudely circular or elliptical in the
islands, but are linear along the coasts; in the one case, the reef incloses a
lagoon, in the other, a lagoon-like channel separates the reef from the coast.
These are fundamental elements of the problem, not one of which may be
neglected in the solution. A clue to the explanation was found by this keen
observer, when he saw an islet of old rock, fringed with coral, rising from the
lagoon of an atoll, so that the atoll-ring resembled in many respects the
barrier reef of a continent and the lagoon itself resembled the lagoon-like
channel seen on the Australian and other coasts.
Chamisso's suggestion that coral reefs had been formed on banks of
sedimentary material seemed wholly incompetent to meet the conditions,
for the areas are too vast, and Darwin was compelled to believe that the
atolls rest on rocky bases; but even on this supposition, it appears incredible
that peaks of several great mountain chains should all come to within less
than 180 feet of the surface and that not one rose any higher. The long
study in South America had prepared him to seek an explanation in mobility
26 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
of the earth's crust ; but it was clear that elevation could not bring about the
conditions, as that would destroy the corals themselves; subsidence alone
can account for the phenomena. And thus Darwin presents his case:
If then the foundations of the many atolls were not uplifted into the requisite
position, they must of necessity have subsided into it; and this at once solves every
difficulty, for we may safely infer from the facts given in the last chapter, that during
a subsidence the corals would be favorably circumstanced for building up their
solid framework and reaching the surface, as island after island slowly disappeared.
Thus areas of immense extent in the central and most profound parts of the oceans
might become interspersed with coral islets, none of which would rise to greater
height than that attained by detritus heaped up by the sea, and nevertheless they
might all have been formed by corals which absolutely require for their growth a solid
foundation within a few fathoms of the surface The rocky bases slowly
and successively sank beneath the level of the sea, while corals continued to grow
upward.
The origin of the ring as well as that of the barrier reef seemed to be
easily explained by this hypothesis. The corals on the outer side of the
reef grew with greater rapidity than did those within, as the supply of food
is constant; those on the inner side became starved and eventually the
interior growth ceased, and the lagoon was shallowed by wind-drifted
material from the shores.
Darwin's hypothesis and the facts on which it was based have become
so familiar that students sometimes express surprise that so much praise
has been awarded to the author. The conditions as presented in his dis-
cussion are so clear that certainly no man could reach any other conclusion.
That is true, but it is true only because Darwin marshalled his facts in a
manner so masterly; in any event, it is always easy to do a thing, when
another has done it well and told us how. But it must be remembered that
a hypothesis of this sort, though normal enough in our day, was very ab-
normal in that day; indeed, it was contrary to Darwin's own underlying
conceptions, for, though a uniformitarian, he had seen many phenomena
which, for a time, made him only a halting disciple. Yet his hypothesis
was a monumental contribution in support of the uniformitarian doctrine,
which, under the leadership of Lyell, was gaining sturdy adherents. That
the hypothesis met with uncompromising opposition need not be said. The
material of coral origin extended to vast depths alongside of the islands, in
some cases apparently to 4,000 feet. The upward growth of the reef was
known to be extremely slow. If the subsidence and the upward growth kept
pace, as was essential to the hypothesis, evidently the required period,
belonging to the latest portion of the earth's existence, was immensely long.
It is difficult now to understand how great moral courage was needed by
the man who published such a doctrine; sixty years ago, the educated man
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 27
of Great Britain had not learned to distinguish between faith and pre-
judice.
This effort to explain the origin of coral reefs has been regarded, justly,
as Darwin's especial contribution to geology. It has been opposed strenu-
ously by careful students during the last twenty years and even now it is a
bone of contention; but the most strenuous opponent concedes that it is
logical and a fair induction from the facts as then known. Be it true or not,
be it a competent explanation or not, no matter. In influence on geology
it has been as far-reaching as the doctrine of natural selection has been on
biology. It involves every important problem in dynamics of the earth's
crust; in testing it, men have been led into paths of investigation, which,
but for Darwin, might still be untrodden. The influence went farther.
The hypothesis was presented at a time when men's minds were warped by
prejudice, when men were extremists, when too many were defenders of
dogmas in science and too few were searchers after truth. Darwin's dis-
cussion was a model of frankness; suggestions offered by his predecessors
were dealt with courteously; he searched far and wide for objections to his
own suggestions, and when objections were found, he stated them in detail,
concealing nothing and urging further investigation. His conclusions
were, for him, merely tabulations of observed facts. One can not over-
estimate the importance of this method; it was a chief factor in changing
the tone of scientific literature, in leading to replacement of subjective by
objective modes of investigation.
Darwin's work as geologist practically ended with these publications
of the Beagle results. It is true that in later years he made some contribu-
tions possessing much interest, but they were merely incidental to studies
in other directions ; the greater part of his long life was devoted to biological
problems. At the same time, his whole mode of thinking and of observing
was that of the geologist, so that if one were treating of his later years the
topic might well be the influence of geology upon Darwin. In his later
works, one finds constantly recurring consideration of geological conditions
as potent factors in biological change, while on the other hand he emphasized
the influence of life as a factor in bringing about geological changes. To
him nature was always one; and he, in great measure, was responsible for
the broadness of view characterizing the geologists who were his contem-
poraries as well as for the remarkable change in attitude of the community
toward scientific discussion. Nowadays, when workers are so many and
knowledge is so increased, men have been forced into narrow lanes of in-
vestigation; students, perplexed by phenomena within their limited vision,
too often think little and know less of what neighbors are doing. And this
must continue until some important problems have been solved, at least in
part, and some positive results have been obtained in many directions.
28 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Then another Darwin will come, will gather loose strands floating in the
wind and will weave from them a new system, once more binding nature
studies into one and providing a safe platform, whence men may start
anew to fathom the unknown by means of the known.
DARWIN AND BOTANY.
BY DR. NATHANIEL LORD BRITTON.
Considering the fact that Charles Darwin disclaimed the title of botanist,
his contributions to the knowledge of plant life and its phenomena were
certainly extraordinary. His investigations extended over a great range
of topics, at one time or another practically covering the whole field of
botanical research. In repeatedly stating that he was not a botanist, he
evidently meant to imply that he was not a systematist, and it is true that his
knowledge of plant taxonomy was the least of his scientific acquirements.
In his first letter to Dr. Asa Gray, written in 1855, which was the commence-
ment of a long correspondence, he almost apologized for asking questions!
During that year he became keenly interested, however, in knowing more
about the kinds of plants growing wild in the vicinity of his home, and in a
letter to Dr. Hooker he complains about the dreadful difficulty of naming
plants, though he apparently became quite enthusiastic in this pursuit and
advised Dr. Hooker, "If ever you catch quite a beginner and want to give
him a taste of botany, tell him to make a perfect list of some little field or
wood." The facts just stated seem to indicate the extent of his taxonomic
studies. He accepted, for the most part, the names of plants which he
studied from the determinations of others.
Darwin was attracted to observations of natural objects as a young
boy and he early considered plants; his juvenile collections were ento-
mological, and his earlier investigations were mainly zoological and geolo-
gical. As a pupil of Professor Henslow at Cambridge University he at-
tended botanical lectures and took part in field excursions; he greatly
enjoyed the field work, and from it his inspiration for investigation was
doubtless derived.
As naturalist of the voyage around the world of the ship Beagle (1831-
1836) his collections of plants made in South America and on the islands of
the Pacific Ocean, and his observations upon the botanical features of the
countries visited, contributed greatly to the knowledge of the flora of those
regions. They were extensively utilized by Dr. Hooker in his "Flora
Antarctica" and in his "Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago," as well as
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION
by other authors in various contributions,
is preserved in the museum of
assiduously at times durin
having brought hom
.ii' liabit the Gala
Islands and '•'l^H^^V^1 I Q^^^B^Ww to science were represented
in his jGralafoaijK I jp^^dthe extraordinary distribution of
species or raoes^^^^HHP^5iaAds of this group, many of them inhabiting
only a single islt^Pfmahe laid the foundation for all subsequent study
of insular floras. The narrative of observations and experiences during
this memorable voyage is replete with interesting facts and suggestions
concerning plants, and his conclusion that "Nothing can be more improving
to a young naturalist than a journey in distant countries," is one that should
be reiterated by all teachers of natural science, and such experience should
be sought by all students who propose engaging in investigation. Darwin
is commemorated in botanical taxonomy by many species named in his
honor. The beautiful barberry, Berberis Darwinii of Hooker, native of
Chiloe, is occasionally seen in cultivation. Darwinia, an Australian genus
of the myrtle family, named by Rudge in 1813, commemorates his grand-
father, Erasmus Darwin.
The beginnings of Darwin's theory of descent of animals and plants
from preexistent species, with modifications, were made during the voyage
of the Beagle, and from the year after his return to England, when, he tells
us he opened the first note-book on the subject. For twenty-two years he
was interrogating gardeners and breeders, botanists and zoologists, and
diligently observing plants and animals. He first thought of publishing
on the theory of descent in 1839, but delayed for twenty years. During the
studies which led up to the publication, in 1859, of "The Origin of Species
by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the
Struggle for Life," Darwin closely observed a great number of wild and
cultivated plants, with reference to variation in nature and under domestica-
tion, the struggle for existence due to competition for food and sunlight,
the facts of geographic distribution, the succession of plant life on the earth
as indicated by the fossils of successive geologic periods, and a great range
of other facts and phenomena. The recorded observations of other botanists
were also freely utilized and discussed. Nearly all the chapters of this
epoch-making work contain conclusions drawn from his own botanical
observations. He was especially impressed by the divergent views of
different botanists relative to the taxonomic treatment of highly polymorphic
genera such as Hieracium (hawk-weed), Rubus (blackberry), Quercus and
Rosa, and he employed this consideration to great advantage in his argu-
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
ent. Rudimentary organs were considered
\ ex-played by Darwin as vestiges of structures
which werfi^^^^^Hl^H I in farliertj^ees of its existence. The facts
of geographic 7!r%vil>i it inn \\ linfei ,- Ix-irii!.^ on the theory
— y of former
land connections of present existing Tity <JLC< oum
ing for many features of ovouT.-ipiiu- • ultimately
agreed with this theory to some extent. I!
means by which seeds are transported over great distarre^^^^^K) inquired
into the vitality of seeds.
The title of the "Origin" was a subject of considerable doubt in his
mind, and in 1857, two years before it was printed, he had proposed to call
it "Natural Selection." The title "Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection" is, if taken literally, somewhat misleading and has occasioned
considerable discussion. The subtitle — "Or the Preservation of Favored
Races in the Struggle for Life " — is a more accurate statement of his theory.
On November 23, 1856, he wrote to Dr. Hooker:
The formation of a strong variety, or species, I look at as almost wholly due to
the selection of what may be incorrectly called chance variations. Again, the
slight differences selected, by which a race or species is at last formed, stand, as I
think can be shown in the far more important relation to its associates than to external
conditions.
Darwin's great contribution to the subject of evolution was the incon-
trovertible proof adduced by him that living species are modified descendants
of preexisting species, and that the modifications are brought about by
natural causes. His observations led him to the conclusion that the modi-
fications were all minute, gradual and cumulative. We know that they may
also be considerable and abrupt and that they are cumulative because favora-
ble changes are preserved.
How, then, do the modifications or primordial variations, either large
or small, arise? Is variation an innate essential quality, or is it induced
by external environmental factors? Proof of. environmental agencies
having at least something to do with it in plants seems to be accumulating,
as the experimental work carried on by MacDougal and by Gager at the
New York Botanical Garden appears to imply.
I think that we may now safely outline the methods of formation of
species somewhat as follows: Through causes which are not yet at all well
known, but by means of which agencies external to the germ-cells certainly
may have a part, the offspring of a plant grown from seed differ more or
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 31
less from the parent (variation). The thus modified offspring, subjected
to natural selection, ultimately perish if they are unadapted, but survive
if they are adapted to their surroundings. Repetitions of this process
finally bring the descendants of plants to differ materially from their ancestors
(evolution). The- end of the process seems to be the development of organ-
isms which are little or not at all subject to variation (monotypic genera).
All genera of plants containing a large number of species are evidently
subject to continued variation, and their species and faces almost defy
classification. Just what part the phenomena of hybridism take in the
final result is not clear, but it may be pointed out that they are evidently
unnecessary, because great groups, whole orders, in fact, of the fungi, are
devoid of sexuality, and hybridism is therefore impossible among them;
yet they are subject to variation like other plants and quite as difficult to
classify.
Observations on insectivorous plants occupied Darwin at intervals
from 1860 until the publication of his volume on that subject in 1875. He
commenced with the round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) while
staying at Ashdown Forest, and was soon intensely interested in the exqui-
site sensitiveness of the leaf-glands to nitrogenous substances. His studies
were continued over most of the plants of the sundew family, and to others
known to entrap insects or other small animals. He discovered that the
leaves of Drosera and of Dioncea secreted a ferment when supplied with
various kinds of nitrogenous food and he closely observed the movements
of their glands and tentacles and recorded them in detail. Experiments
were also made on these plants with a great variety of non-nitrogenous
suhstances. Darwin pointed out the remarkable parallelism between the
digestive powers of the secretions of the Droseraceae and those of the gastric
juices of animals. The sacs of the aquatic bladder-worts (Uiricularia) and
the leaves of butter-worts (Pinguicula) were also closely studied. His
book is replete with records of careful observations and ingenious deductions.
Nepenthes had already been shown by Dr. Hooker to secrete digestive
fluids in its pitcher-like leaves, and Sarracenia was suspected of similar
activity by Darwin and by others, although he did not regard this as proven.
As early as 1838 or 1839 Darwin was attracted to observe the processes
of pollination and noticed the dimorphic flowers of Linum flavum. He" had
concluded at that time that cross-fertilization was potent in holding species
stable and constant. He obtained a great deal of information on this topic
in 1841 by reading Sprengle's "Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur," which
stimulated him to continued investigations during summers and he became
especially interested in the methods of pollination of the wild orchids growing
about, his home. This study of pollination of orchids resulted in the publi-
32 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
cation, in 1862, of his book on that subject, and in it his detailed observations
are recorded. Some of his closest observational work was done on this
subject of cross-pollination, and he examined a great many species and
grew thousands of plants from seed, reaching the broad generalization that
cross-fertilization is beneficial to a species and self-fertilization is injurious.
The phenomena do not now, however, appear to have as important a relation
to evolution as they were formerly supposed to have, and Darwin later
expressed regret that he had not given more attention to the processes of
self-fertilization.
His interest in showing that cross-fertilization was beneficial led him to
investigate closely the various structural features of flowers which necessitate
this process to a greater or less degree, such as dicecism, moncecism, poly-
gamy and heterostyly; his observations and speculations are presented in
the volume entitled "Different Forms of Flowers and Plants of the Same
Species," published in 1877. He records that making out the meaning of
heterostyled flowrers gave him very great pleasure. A chapter of the book
is devoted to cleistogamic flowers, which are necessarily self fertilized and
produce seed abundantly. This work is largely a revision and rearrangement
of several papers previously published in the Journal of the Linncean Society.
"The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," Darwin's
largest work, appeared in 1868, published in two volumes. As bearing on
this topic, he had studied, among plants, for many years, the cereal grains,
garden vegetables, edible fruits, ornamental trees and ornamental flowers.
In the preface he again discusses natural selection and defines it as "This
preservation, during the battle for life, of varieties which possess any ad-
vantage in structure, constitution or instinct," noting that Herbert Spencer
had well termed the same process "The Survival of the Fittest." But the
bulk of the work is given to the consideration of selection by man — arti-
ficial selection, by which races useful to us, economically or esthetically,
have been preserved and modified, some of them having originated in very
remote times and been taken advantage of by uncivilized man. A chapter
is devoted to the phenomena of bud-variation, in which many cases of
branches of plants different in one respect or another from other branches
on the same plant are described in detail. Many of these have been taken
advantage of by horticulturists for the propagation of valuable races. He
did not reach any definite conclusion as to the cause of these interesting
occurrences; but recently acquired knowledge of mutation seems to indi-
cate that they are of that category, differing from seminal mutations in
that a cell in the axil of a leaf is affected rather than a germ-cell. In these
volumes we find Darwin's most detailed discussion of heredity, of variability
and of hybridism and the last chapter outlines his provisional hypothesis
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 33
of pangenesis, an ingenious supposition, applying to living matter the general
features of the atomic theory, with an additional inherent power of repro-
duction of the atoms or "gemmules" as he termed the hypothetical ultimate
particles.
The movements of plants and of their various organs were also studied
by Darwin for many years. His first essay on this topic appeared in 1865
and ten years later he revised and enlarged it as a book under the title
"The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants," using, as always, not
only his own detailed and extensive observations, but also the published
writings of other botanists, among them the paper on tendrils by Hugo
de Vries, who was destined subsequently to throw such a flood of light on
the phenomena of variation. Darwin grouped climbing plants into twiners,
leaf-climbers, tendril-bearers, hook-climbers and root- climbers. He main-
tained that the climbing habit has been developed to enable vines to reach
the light and free air; tropical forests show conclusively that this is the case.
He showed that circumnutation, the bending of growing tips successively
to all points of the compass, is a general phenomenon among flowering
plants, and he thought it of high importance to them. The sensitiveness
of tendrils to external influences interested him deeply, and he made many
original experiments upon them. Following the subject much further he
published in 1880 the work entitled "The Power of Movement in Plants,"
a treatise abounding in records of original observations on seedlings and
parts of mature plants, including further studies of circumnutation, of the
sensitiveness of plants to light and to other forces and of the phenomena of
geotropism and apogeotropism, which he regarded as modified phenomena
of circumnutation.
The value of the impulse given by Darwin to botanical investigation
in all its branches is beyond estimation; his power of exact observation
and record has seldom been equaled and certainly never excelled; his
deductions were highly philosophical, and most of them have stood the
test of thirty years' inquiry and criticism; he was searching for truth and
his absolute honesty in research is plainly evidenced by his repeated criticism
of his own conclusions.
The immense number of plant species which had been described and
named, and the lack of any complete index to them led Darwin to provide
in his will for complete enumeration of the names of published species of
flowering plants. This great work was prepared at the library of the Royal
Gardens, Kew, England, and published in 1895 in four large quarto volumes,
to which several supplements have since been added. This "Index
Kewensis" is a great boon to all investigators, and is quite indispensable
to those who have to take plant names into consideration.
34 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
DARWIN AND ZOOLOGY.
BY DR. HERMOX C. BUMPUS.
This is an assembly composed substantially of members and friends of
the New York Academy of Sciences, united to do homage to one whose
genius has been long felt in our meetings, and whose influence is now recog-
nized in every field of intellectual endeavor. The example of Darwin's
precision in observing, of his wisdom in interpreting and of his truthfulness
in recording the phenomena of nature has transformed zoology — the
subject assigned to me — from prosaic description to acute speculation, from
a merely interesting study to an aggressive science.
This change took place in an incredibly short space of time, and it may
be worth while, on an occasion such as this, to examine the condition of
scientific academies and similar organizations in America at the time of
the publication of the "Origin of Species," to note the first center of appre-
ciative acceptance and to trace the spread of the belief in Darwinism as it
betrayed itself in the publications of the time.
Fifty years ago there wrere in America five leading centers of organized
scientific activity.
In Philadelphia were the American Philosophical Society, founded
by Franklin and then well along in its second century of "promoting useful
knowledge," and the Academy of Natural Sciences, approaching its semi-
centennial.
In Boston were the adolescent Boston Society of Natural History, ap-
proaching its thirtieth birthday, and the mature American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, founded in 1780.
In New Haven was the Connecticut Academy, founded in 1786.
In Washington, although the National Institution for the Promotion
of Science (founded in 1840) and the Smithsonian Institution had been
publishing for eleven years, men of science apparently did not unite in an
academic way until the Philosophical Society of Washington was organized
in 1871. Even the National Academy was not incorporated until 1863,
four years after the announcement of the "Origin of Species."
In New York, this academy (then called the Lyceum of Natural History)
was meeting at Fourteenth Street, at a point now occupied by the head-
quarters of Tammany Hall. Of those then attending its meetings, but one
now remains.
The dominant mind at Philadelphia was that of Leidy, thirty-six years
of age. Cope was a boy of nineteen. In Washington, were Joseph Henry,
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 35
sixty-two; Bache, sixty-three; Baird, thirty-six, and others attached to the
Smithsonian Institution, and the great government surveys. Baird was
often a contributor to the publications of the New York Lyceum of Natural
History.
In New York was Torrey, a man of sixty-three, and among others two
young men, Theodore Nicholas Gill — the senior member of this academy
— and Daniel Giraud Elliot, now honoring this museum with his presence
— both born in New York, and both in their early twenties. Not only
have these two — early identified with the scientific publications of this
academy — witnessed the change that has taken place during the past fifty
years, but their long series of contributions to science admirably illustrate
the strange power that has been exerted upon zoological work in general,
and descriptive zoology in particular, by him who came into being one
hundred years ago.
In New Haven were James Dwight Dana, forty-six, Daniel C. Gilman,
twenty-eight, and the Sillimans.
In Boston, were Agassiz, adored by the people — preeminent among
teachers — the studious lovable Gray, at one time (1836) librarian of this
academy, and Jeffries Wyman. Both Agassiz and Gray were about the
age of Darwin. Jeffries Wyman was a few years their junior; of him
Lowell has written:
He widened knowledge and escaped the praise
He toiled for science, not to draw men's gaze.
Under the influence of these, Agassiz, Gray, Jeffries Wyman, there
gathered at Cambridge, at about this time, what we would now informally
and affectionately call "a bunch of boys." Shaler, eighteen; Verrill (who
has come down from New Haven to be with us this afternoon) and Packard,
twenty; Morse, Hyatt and Allen — our Dr. Allen — twenty-one; Scudder,
twenty-two.
Of the five centers of scientific activity, youth was certainly the charac-
teristic of the school at Boston. It is therefore safe to predict that the germ
of the new truth in biological science would find a more favorable medium
in Boston than here in New York or farther south.
The infection was immediate, indeed " prr-immediate." The period
of incubation extended over about ten years, ending in an acute epidemic
from 1871-1876, which affected lyceums, associations and academies in-
discriminately. Convalescence then began, since which the American
body-scientific has enjoyed good health and has shown many periods of
remarkable growth.
36 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The "Origin of Species" was published in London late in November,
1859. The following month, Asa Gray, long intimately acquainted with
Darwin, and anxious that Americans should see promptly the significance
of the new theory, wrote for Sillimaris Journal a review of the book, before
a single copy of the "Origin" had reached this country. He predicted
that the work would produce great discussion — it did. A copy arrived,
it was carefully reviewed, but before the review could be gotten through the
press, a second edition was announced, and within three months two Ameri-
can editions were advertised.
Gray gave his first review in December. In January, Professors Agassiz,
Parsons and Rogers are recorded as having discussed the "Origin and
Distribution of Species" at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences on Beacon Street. Gray was present. In February, Agassiz
began his open opposition to the theory of Darwin, stating at the Boston
Society of Natural History that, while Darwin was one of the best naturalists
in England, his great knowledge and experience had been brought to the
support of an ingenious but fanciful theory. In these discussions Professor
Rogers valiantly upheld Darwin's views. In March, Agassiz continued to
oppose Darwin, and in April, Gray and Parsons made their reply. In May,
they were at it again. Then followed the admirable essay of Parsons, Pro-
fessor of Law at Harvard, and the unfortunate advance sheets of the third
volume of Agassiz's "Contributions." Then came Gray's Atlantic Monthly
articles, and thus ended the first year.
Among the records of the learned societies of New York, Philadelphia
and Washington, I can find nothing to indicate that there was any particular
interest in the disturbances that were going on in and about Boston. Pro-
fessor Dana, easily the dominant figure in science at New Haven, was in
poor health and out of the country, but it was generally considered that his
intensely idealistic views would probably have prevented him from accepting
a theory that was felt by many to be grossly materialistic. The infection
therefore was local and remained local about Boston for a full decade.
In 1861 Agassiz doubtless discussed the matter before the National
Academy in a paper on the "Individuality of Animals," but I have been
unable to find a copy of the paper.
In 1863 Jeffries "Wyman, in his review of Owen's monograph on the
"Aye-aye" gave inference of his adherence to the theories of Darwin, and
indicated the impossibility of there being any neutral ground.
In 1865 Morse came to New York from Salem to be the guest of this
academy, but the formal paper that he presented did not contain even a
remote allusion to the discussions that were going on in what was then con-
sidered America's educational center.
ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 37
In 1867 Hyatt's paper on "Parallelism" appeared. This I believe to
be the first distinctly evolutionary contribution from the zoological side.
In this year, 1867, Professor Xewberry, later and for twenty-three years the
president of this academy, delivered his address at the Burlington meeting
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, betraying in
this a singular nobleness of character toward those to whose advanced views
he felt that the scientific world could not entirely subscribe, and admirably
illustrating what he interpreted to be the prevailing opinion as shown by the
following quotation:
Although this Darwinian hypothesis is looked upon by many as striking at the
root of all vital faith, and is the bete noire of all those good men who deplore and con-
demn the materialistic tendency of modern science, still the purity of life of the
author of the "Origin of Species," his enthusiastic devotion to the study of truth,
the industry and acumen which have marked his researches, the candor and caution
with which his suggestions have been made, all combine to render the obloquy and
scorn with which they have been received in many quarters, peculiarly unjust and
in bad taste.
This was also the first year of the American Naturalist, edited, by those
four pupils of Agassiz — Packard, Morse, Hyatt and Putnam — of whom
two are still spared. The introduction of the charming first volume of this
characteristic American publication is sufficient proof that at the time of its
issue even the younger men felt that there were two distinct schools of thought
relative to the "Origin of Species." Those who are familiar with the in-
troduction will remember that it is illuminated with one of Morse's inimitable
sketches, a snail peering through a binocular microscope, symbolical, doubt-
less, of the slowness of perception of those who clung to this archaic instru-
ment and possibly also of those who clung to archaic ideas.
The following year, 1868, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia, which in 1860 had elected Darwin to membership, published the
first important direct contribution to the subject of evolution made by one
not directly under the influence of the Boston academies. This contribution,
"On the Origin of Genera," was made by Cope, who for several years had
been submitting papers to the academy of a descriptive and semi-speculative
character, and largely dealing with the classification of reptiles. I believe
that I am perfectly safe in saying that no academy in America has ever
published a paper that reflects more to its credit than this extraordinary
essay of Cope. It is apologetically issued as a fragment, but in it there is
shown an intimate acquaintance with anatomical detail that is almost super-
natural, an independence of thought that is extraordinary, a power of analysis
that stuns the reader, an estimate of the weak and the strong points of the
Darwinian theory that is masterly, an agility of logic that marked its author
38 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
as a dangerous antagonist, an energy to reach the truth, and an impetuosity
to convince others of truth, that was prophetic, indeed, that was completely
demonstrative of pent-up mental power which must have been most disturb-
ing to those of his academy who had nestled down into positions of com-
fortable intellectuality.
We now enter upon five years of acute activity.
On December 15, 1871, Cope attended a meeting of the American
Philosophical Society, and presented his paper on "The Method of Creation
of Organic Forms." In a fortnight a reply was given, which began with a
quotation from Job: "I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls,"
and continued for several pages in attempted explanation and demonstration
of the falsity of Darwin's theories, and ended with the author's conviction
that the only good that can come from these theories is the fact that they
must bring about their own defeat. Cope replied immediately and was
then replied to, and so on. But why follow the discussion ?
The spell was being felt even farther south. Within two months of the
date of its founding, the Philosophical Society of Washington listened to a
paper by 'Professor Gill, in which it was stated that if the doctrine of evolu-
tion was accepted at all, it must involve man.
This was also the date of Dr. Allen's paper on the " Geographical Varia-
tion of North American Birds," a philosophical as well as descriptive article,
an important contribution to the then scant literature of distribution, a
paper which established a distinct method of zoological research that has
reflected the highest credit on its author and on the institutions with which
he has been connected.
It was also in this year that Morse published his paper on "Adaptive
Coloration."
In January, 1872, the New York Academy made its first direct contribu-
tion to the subject of evolution by publishing a brief paper on the "Carpus
and Tarsus of Birds." I hope that Professor Morse, now forty-five years a
member of this academy, is present at this gathering, for the fifty years that
have passed since the appearance of the "Origin of Species" exactly syn-
chronize with the period of his devotion to the principles enunciated therein.
If, among the volumes of this academy from 1859-1876, one binding
shows more signs of use than the others, take down the book, and you will
find that it opens to this article by Professor Morse; a contribution to zoology,
to comparative anatomy, to embryology and to the theory of evolution.
It is a refreshing spot, but somewhat out of place in an arid expanse of
descriptions of new species and revised classifications.
Another paper issued by the academy in 1872, and characteristic of the
new thought of the time, was by Benj. M. Martin on the "Unity of the
General Forces of Nature," but this was physical rather than biological.
DARWIN MEMORIAL CELEBRATION 39
If one were forced to accept the presidential addresses of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science as indicative of the advance-
ment of science in American associations, the address of 1873, delivered
by one who said he thought that natural selection had died with Lamarck,
would be .sadly misleading. He writes :
In Darwin we have one of those philosophers whose great knowledge of animal
and vegetable life is transcended only by his imagination. In fact, he is to be
regarded more as a metaphysician with a highly-wrought imagination than as a
scientist.
But this is only the beginning of the gloom that anticipated the dawn.
Although in 1874 Dr. Elsberg, in a " Contribution to the Doctrine of
Evolution," addressed this academy (and also the American Association
for the Advancement of Science), in favor of the principles of Darwin,
although Cope continued to sustain his earlier contentions, and general
workers were beginning to make original observations in favor of the princi-
ples of organic descent, the reviewers of the deliberations of scientific gather-
ings gave little promise of anything like a general acceptance of the beliefs
in which we are interested.
In 1875, the retiring president of the American Association said:
I fear that the unhappy spirit of contention still survives, and that there are a
few who fight for victory rather than for the truth.
One of the vice-presidents at this meeting declined to "enter on the vast
field of discussion .... opened up by Darwin and others," and resolved to
avoid the use of the word "evolution," "as this has recently been employed
in so many senses as to have become nearly useless for any scientific purpose."
Thus closed five years of struggle.
The year 1876, the centennial of political independence in America,
marked also the dawrn of intellectual independence and scientific freedom.
It was the year of Brooks's first Salpa paper, and of his paper on pangenesis.
Cope explicitly stated that the law of natural selection was now generally
accepted, and the then librarian of this academy, Louis Elsberg, submitted
his paper on the plastidule hypothesis, as nonchalantly as though he were
discussing the lingual ribbon.
It was under these really blessed conditions that the American Asso-
ciation met in Buffalo and listened to a vice-presidential address fully worthy
the title of the organization. Edward S. Morse had demonstrated his
ability as an investigator in his paper of 1872, already mentioned, but the
simple, straightforward, patient and kindly manner in which he addressed
his audience in 1S7G, the thoroughness with which he scanned the work of
40 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
others, the fairness with which he acknowledged the value of their results,
and his concluding passages, in which he indicated the important bearing
that the theories of descent had upon the social problems of the day, render
his address a fit conclusion of a distinct epoch in the history of American
science.
Since 1876, practically every zoological worker has sought to make
some contribution that might strengthen his faith in a rational evolution of
organic life and activities. It may be that such contributions will prove
insufficient. It may be that Darwinism as a thing will ultimately fail of
proof, but to those in the future who may inquire for the reason for these
exercises and for the erection of this monument, Darwinism as a method
will ever be a sufficient reply.
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