The doctrine of descent and Darwinism / by Oscar Schmidt.

  • Schmidt, Oscar, 1823-1886
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The doctrine of descent and Darwinism / by Oscar Schmidt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scriber of Nature, is rendered comprehensible only by the confident style as well as by the neatness of his diagnoses, by which, with a single stroke, he put an end to the indefinite character of Natural History, and appeared to contemporaries and posterity as a lawgiver. The exaltation of species as the basis of all systematic com- prehension had never been so explicitly proclaimed. His opinions culminate in the maxim,14 “ Reason teaches that at the beginning of things, a pair of each particular species was created.” But with Linnaeus this said reason looks rather strange, for it is subservient to the strictest Scriptural belief, and he endeavours to harmonize his geological conceptions with this standpoint. One very effective geological phenomenon was espe- cially striking to him, namely, the upheaval of a great portion of the Scandinavian coast. It proceeds more rapidly than the subsidence of another part; its phe- nomena are far mightier ; and thus the idea might be formed that the continent had risen from the sea in regular progression. “ I believe that I am not straying far from the truth,” he says, “ if I affirm that in the infancy of the world all the mainland was submerged and covered by an enormous ocean, save one single island in this immeasurable sea, on which all animals dwelt and plants grew luxuriantly.”15 It follows that all species of plants likewise existed in this lovely garden, as it is expressly said that Adam named every animal ; consequently all insects must have been assembled in Paradise, but insects cannot be imagined without plants. Linnaeus then makes the first attempt at animal geography by making the animals disperse themselves from this centre. But the summary