Evolution in its Course

Abstract

ONE of the most persistent plaints of the anti-evolutionist is that the biologist has failed to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the unbeliever the actual occurrence of evolution in the present-day world. The criticism is difficult to meet, for, apart from the blind eye which the critic is apt to turn to the well-meaning efforts of the biologist, evolution is a slow process not readily to be caught in its stride. Even amongst biologists themselves there has been a tendency in recent years to look askance at the work of the systematist, and to lean upon the experiments of the laboratory as the only sure test of biological processes.