Abstract
THE great merit of this interesting and thorough piece of work is its explicit recognition of the principle of selection as an indispensable element in organic evolution. We are in some degree prepared for the author's attitude on this question by the last sentene of his preface, in which he asserts that the principle of selection affords at the present time the only scientific explanation of the harmony existing between the endowments of an organism, whether structural or functional, and its surrounding conditions. From this statement it might be supposed that the author not only holds selection to be an essential agent in organic evolution, but that he is also prepared to dispense with the Lamarckian factors, which have certainly been appealed to as furnishing an alternative or concurrent explanation of the same harmonious relations between organism and environment. Such, however, as will be seen later, is not the case.
Ueber Bedeutung und Tragweite des Darwin'schen Selectionsprincips.
Von L. Plate, Privatdozent an der Universität Berlin. Pp. 1–153. (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1900.)
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D., F. Ueber Bedeutung und Tragweite des Darwin'schen Selectionsprincips. Nature 64, 49–50 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/064049a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/064049a0
