Notes, Memoranda, &c.

The Late Charles Darwin.

A great man has just passed away from amongst us. The enthusiastic naturalist, Charles Darwin, whose patient industry and invariable candour won him the goodwill even of his enemies, has joined the great majority, at the ripe age of 73, after a life, as a scientist, of almost unparalleled activity, and the propounding of a theory which may fairly be said to have resulted in a revolution of thought throughout the learned world, from San Francisco to Nagasaki, and from Cape Town to Archangel.

It was the development of this latter idea, perhaps, that created more enemies for Darwin than did any other of his voluminous writings. The theory of Evolution is by no means a new one. It was hinted at by Lucretius in his celebrated poem, in which he enunciates page 116 the hypothesis that all the material Universe is the result of a fort" uitous concourse of atoms. These atoms, he tells us, originally moved forward in parallel lines, and when reminded that if so the atoms would move on in that direction for ever, since parallel lines never meet, straightway suggested that a slant was, by some mysterious means, given to their original course. Had Lucretius known of the law of gravitation, at that time unheard of, he might have answered the objection in a much more satisfactory manner. Similarly, the same writer was in ignorance of thousands of facts connected with biology, and only recently demonstrated by modern science, and, therefore, utterly incapable of dealing with that "mystery of mysteries," the variety of animal and plant life. His hypothesis, therefore, was regarded as the idle dream of a visionary philosopher, an atheist withal, an eloquent poet, but knowing far less concerning natural history phenomena than the school boy of the present day who has read through the educational primers upon botany, zoology, and animal physiology. The theory of evolution was at a much later day advocated by Lamarck and others, and still later by the anonymous author of the "Vestiges of Creation." In these cases, however, although the rough hypothesis might have been characterized by a great deal of truth, the vera causa assigned was by no means backed up by phenomena. The respective writers, therefore, received most unmerciful castigations from Hugh Miller, Prof. Sedgewick, and others, and the Lamarckian cum Vestiges theory fell into disrepute.

It remained for Darwin not only to revive the theory, but to place before the world a reasonable modus operandi by means of which changes in species and gradual evolution, from the simplest to the most complicated organisms, had been brought about. His theory (which, by the way, is altogether misunderstood by thousands of his admirers) is, that all species are prone to vary by almost imperceptible degrees; that in some cases the variations are in favor, surrounding circumstances being taken into consideration, of the animal; that there is almost invariably a superabundance of births and a consequent struggle for existence; that in such struggle the individuals of a species possessed of any advantage of structure will be more likely to live and bring forth offspring than are their less fortunate confreres. Hence the idea of the survival of the fittest, and by a series of these gradual changes and destructions, after thousands, it may be myriads, of centuries, a new species altogether dissimilar to the members of the original stock. It is notable that Darwin did not touch upon the origin of life. How the primal germ came into existence he did not venture to assert. In this respect he appears to have been possessed with all the modesty of Newton, who, when asked to give a reason for the force of gravitation, straightway replied, "I know of none save that it is the will of the Creator."

The views of Darwin, however, in his "Origin of Species," and more especially in his "Descent of Man," were considered hostile towards the popular interpretation of Genesis, and, as a consequence, drew down upon him a good deal of clerical opposition, which was all the stronger from the circumstance that the new theory was as hotly combated by men of science as by priests and bishops. It is doubtful, page 117 however, whether the worst foes of the great naturalist were not rather his most enthusiastic admirers than those who openly professed to be his opponents. The propositions put forward by Darwin with the utmost diffidence, and so unassumingly that no one could take offence at the language, even if differing from the idea, were brought forward as if fully demonstrated, and in language that, as Professor Mivart says, "was positively insulting" by scientists such as Vogt and Hæckel. "I think," were the modest words used by the originator. "We know," was the dogmatic dictum of many of his followers. "If such a thing is, then I imagine such a thing may be" is an almost stereotyped expression characteristic of the writings of this great philosopher. "Such things are, therefore such things must be" is the dictatorial ex cathedra utterance of many of the least worthy disciples of the master.

The publication of the theory has brought the doctrine of evolution prominently forward, and caused it to be studied by persons who, otherwise, would have paid no attention whatever to the subject. Even clergymen of the most orthodox school, as witness the late Canon Kingsley, are firm Darwinians to a certain extent. There is no doubt whatever that gradual variations, and the law of the survival of the fittest, have played a most important part in the history of the organic world, and that sexual selection, a sort of supplemental theory of Dr. Darwin, has played a most important part also. But as the originator added a supplement, so other investigators may add still further supplements. It may be, as Professor Mivart appears to think, that there was appointed from all eternity, by an all-wise Creator, a law by which, at a given time, new species shall arise by natural birth from their progenitors. And other causes may, by patient investigation, be brought ultimately to light. Meanwhile, those who seek to unravel the mystery must take an example from the life-long conduct of him who has lately departed from this earthly scene, who, being dead, will not be forgotten, and with regard to whom, let us hope, the most virulent of his adversaries will say, in all humility, "Requiescat in pace: the good" that thou hast done live after thee, and if, peradventure, thou hast inadvertently done evil, let the grave hide it,—let the dust cover it."

The "Catalogue of the Australian-stalk and sessile-eyed Crustacea," by Mr. W. A. Haswell, has been printed by order of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and is, according to the preface, intended as the first of a series of works of a similar character. It is a volume of over 300 pages, and contains descriptions of all the known Australian Malacostracous Crustacea, amounting to 540 species, and including many which have not previously been recorded as occurring in Australia. It also gives very many new Australian localities for species already known as natives of our shores. A very large proportion (over 200) of the species were originally described, and in many cases figured, by Mr. Haswell in a series of papers running through the last three volumes of the journal of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, and necessarily representing a vast amount of careful and most valuable scientific work. page 118 Mr. Haswell has, moreover, extended and improved most of the specific descriptions of older authors in those cases where the species have come under his own observation, thereby greatly facilitating the identification of specimens. The introduction gives a concise account of the general structure of the orders included in the Catalogue,

The publication of this work places the student of the Malacostraca in a more advantageous position than that occupied by observers in almost any other department of Australian Natural History, summarizing as it does the whole body of information obtainable on the subject and presenting it in a compact form. We sincerely trust that the expressed intention of publishing similar works on other classes will be carried into effect as soon as practicable, and that the selection of authors for the work will be as well made as in the present instance. We should like also to see our own Museum following the good example set by the Sydney institution, so that each Museum could be occupied at the same time with a different class, to the manifest advantage of scientific workers. We may instance the Bryozoa as a class of which a synopsis is much wanted and could readily be prepared from the large amount of material available.

In conclusion we may take some slight exception to the title given by the Museum authorities to the work under consideration. Doubtless the Edriophthalmata have been conventionally known as the "Sessile-eyed Crustacea," still the term is wanting in scientific accuracy, since the vast group of the Entomostraca are just as truly sessile-eyed Crustacea as those to which the term is applied in the Catalogue. The title "Australian Malacostraca," with which Mr. Haswell heads his pages, should therefore, we think, have been adopted as the title of the book in place of the inexact and possibly misleading one actually made use of.