Leland Stanford Jr. University. The essay of Professor Conklin was read before the American Philosophical Society. The others are here presented for the first time. I may add that the present volume is not intended as a text-book in Evolution, although most phases of organic development are in one way or another touched. upon, some of them, however, most briefly. The treatment of different topics is necessarily unequal. The time is long past when any one man can master what is known in any science, least of all the universal science of life. In the supplementary essays I have asked my scientific friends to do for this volume certain work which I could not do except by the unsatisfactory method of compilation. DAVID STARR JORDAN. PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, January 19, 1898. ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. 1. THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. What is the cause of variety in life? What is a species? PAGE tures in man. Gill slits in man. Objections to the the- II.-EVOLUTION: WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT . 54 What evolution is. The science of organic evolution or bionomics. Meaning of law. Soundness and solvency of Nature. The indifference of Nature. Evolution as a theory of organic development. Each fact has a mean- ing. Evolution as a method of study. Evolution as a system of cosmic philosophy. Decay of formulæ. What evolution is not. Man not a developed monkey. Not progress, but adaptation. Humanity not the goal of evo- lution. Change by slow divergence. No innate tend- ency toward progression. Spontaneous generation. III. THE ELEMENTS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION Heredity. Irritability. Individuality. Natural selec- tion. Concessions of life. Self-activity. Altruism. Iso- lation. Nutrition in transmission. Survival of the exist- Embryology shows the method of evolution. Statement protoplasm relatively but not absolutely stable. Do ex- trinsic factors affect germinal protoplasm? Diminished nutrition. Changes in environment. Use and disuse. Mechanical conditions. Results of impact. Value of Formation of character. Hereditary tendencies. heritance of humanity. Inheritance of race characters. Individual characters. The germ cell. Protoplasm. Chromatin. Inequality of Nature's divisions. Atavism. The mid-parent. The thoroughbred. Changes through experience. Inheritance of acquired characters. Nature of acquired characters. Prenatal influences. Transmis- sion of impaired vitality. Ibsen's ghosts. Potentialities not character. The higher heredity. The unity of the ego. The ego a co-operation. Fame not greatness. Counting one's ancestors. Lineage of a little girl. All Englishmen of noble birth. Effect of primogeniture. The cell theory. The meaning of the term "cell." Uni- chromosome. The ultimate vital units. Significance of Illustrations not arguments. Cumulative evidence. The fauna of the Galapagos. Island life. Effects of mi- gration on species. Effects of isolation. Barriers to diffu- sion. Holarctic realm. Neotropical realm. Ethiopian realm. Indian realm. Australian realm. Anomalies in distribution. Adaptation of animals to environment. Invasion of the Australian realm. Trout in Yellowstone Park. Two-Ocean Pass. Laws of distribution of ani- mals. Barriers of land, sea, and climate. Interdepend- ence of species. The arctic birch. Crossing the bar- riers. The flying fish. Subspecies or geographical variations. Doubtful species. Darwin's experience. The shore larks. Work of Dr. J. A. Allen. Species de- fined by missing links. Analogy between variations of species and of words. A fauna like a language. The in shore fishes of the tropics. Fewer vertebræ indicates Introduction: General evidence of paleontology; in- |