One of the Greatest Difficulties of the Darwinian Theory

Abstract

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK has done good service to science in directing attention to the metamorphoses of insects, by admitting freely the great difficulty in conceiving “by what natural process an insect with a suctorial mouth, like that of a gnat or butterfly, could be developed from a powerful mandibulate type like the Orthoptera, or even from that of the Neuroptera” (NATURE for Nov. 9, page 28). Such “difficulties” have struck many from the first, and it is in no small degree encouraging to those who love the liberty of science, to find that the time is approaching when difficulties may be brought under consideration and discussion.