Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
- CHAPTER II THE INCOMPETENCY OF “NATURAL SELECTION” TO ACCOUNT FOR THE INCIPIENT STAGES OF USEFUL STRUCTURES
- CHAPTER III THE CO-EXISTENCE OF CLOSELY SIMILAR STRUCTURES OF DIVERSE ORIGIN
- CHAPTER IV MINUTE AND GRADUAL MODIFICATIONS
- CHAPTER V AS TO SPECIFIC STABILITY
- CHAPTER VI SPECIES AND TIME
- CHAPTER VII SPECIES AND SPACE
- CHAPTER VIII HOMOLOGIES
- CHAPTER IX EVOLUTION AND ETHICS
- CHAPTER X PANGENESIS
- CHAPTER XI SPECIFIC GENESIS
- CHAPTER XII THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
- INDEX
CHAPTER VII - SPECIES AND SPACE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY
- CHAPTER II THE INCOMPETENCY OF “NATURAL SELECTION” TO ACCOUNT FOR THE INCIPIENT STAGES OF USEFUL STRUCTURES
- CHAPTER III THE CO-EXISTENCE OF CLOSELY SIMILAR STRUCTURES OF DIVERSE ORIGIN
- CHAPTER IV MINUTE AND GRADUAL MODIFICATIONS
- CHAPTER V AS TO SPECIFIC STABILITY
- CHAPTER VI SPECIES AND TIME
- CHAPTER VII SPECIES AND SPACE
- CHAPTER VIII HOMOLOGIES
- CHAPTER IX EVOLUTION AND ETHICS
- CHAPTER X PANGENESIS
- CHAPTER XI SPECIFIC GENESIS
- CHAPTER XII THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
- INDEX
Summary
The study of the distribution of animals over the earth's surface presents us with many facts having certain not unimportant bearings on the question of specific origin. Amongst these are instances which, at least at first sight, appear to conflict with the Darwinian theory of “Natural Selection.” It is not, however, here contended that such facts do by any means constitute by themselves obstacles which cannot be got over. Indeed it would be difficult to imagine any obstacles of the kind which could not be surmounted by an indefinite number of terrestrial modifications of surface — submergences and emergences—junctions and separations of continents in all directions and combinations of any desired degree of frequency. All this being supplemented by the intercalation of armies of enemies, multitudes of ancestors of all kinds, and myriads of connecting forms, whose raison d'être may be simply their utility or necessity for the support of the theory of “Natural Selection.”
Nevertheless, when brought in merely to supplement and accentuate considerations and arguments derived from other sources, in that case difficulties connected with the geographical distribution of animals are not without significance, and are worthy of mention even though, by themselves, they constitute but feeble and more or less easily explicable puzzles which could not alone suffice either to sustain or to defeat any theory of specific origination.
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- On the Genesis of Species , pp. 144 - 154Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1871