Recent advances in natural science in their relation to the Christian faith : a paper read at the Reading Church Congress, October, 1883 / by Professor Flower.

  • Flower, William Henry, 1831-1899.
Date:
[1883]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Recent advances in natural science in their relation to the Christian faith : a paper read at the Reading Church Congress, October, 1883 / by Professor Flower. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of gradations between what were formerly supposed to be distinct species are being constantly brought to light. The difficulty of giving any satisfactory definition of what is meant by the term species is increasingly felt day by day by practical zoologists, as evidenced by the introduction of such terms as sub-species, permanent local variety, etc., into general use, and especially by the wide differences of opinion as to the number or limits of the species included in any given group of animals or plants among naturalists who have made such group their special study. 2. —Vast increase in the knowledge of the intimate structure of organic bodies, both as revealed by ordinary dissection, and by micro- scopic examination, a method of investigation only brought to perfection in very recent years. By the knowledge thus acquired, has been demonstrated the unity of plan pervading, under diverse modifications, • the different members of each natural group of organisms, at one time attributed to conformity to type, a so-called explanation, which explained nothing, but for which a vera causa may be found in descent from a common ancestor. Wonderful gradations in the perfection to which different structures have attained in the progress of their adapta- tion to their respective purposes have also been shown, and of still greater importance and interest, the numerous cases of apparently useless or rudimentary organs in both animals and plants, which were absolutely unaccounted for under the older hypothesis. 3. —-The comparatively new study of the geographical distribution of living things, which has only become possible since the prosecution of the systematic and scientific explorations of the earth's surface which have distinguished the present century. The results of this branch of enquiry alone have been sufficient to convince many naturalists of the unsoundness of the old view of the distinct origin of species, whether creat&d each in the region of the globe to which it is now confined, or as many still imagine, all in one spot, from which they have spread themselves unchanged in form, colour, or other essential attributes to their present abodes, however diverse in climate and other environments or conditions of existence. 4. —Lastly, though most important of all, must be mentioned the entirely new science of palaeontology, opening up worlds of organic life before unknown, also showing infinite gradations of structure, but mainly important as increasing our horizon of observation to an extent not previously dreamt of in the direction of time. Powers of observa- tion formerly limited to the brief space of a few generations are now extended over ages, which the concurrent testimony of various branches of knowledge, of astronomy, cosmogony, and geology, show are immeasurable compared with any periods of which we hitherto had cognisance. We are enabled to trace, and every year, as discovery succeeds discovery, with increasing distinctness, numerous cases of sequences of modification running through groups of animals in suc- cessive periods of time, such as the gradual progress in the development and perfection of the antlers of deer, from their entire absence in the earliest known representatives of the type, through the simple conical or bifurcated form, increasing in complexity as time advanced to the magnificent many-branched, appendages which adorn the heads of some species of recent stags, such also as the progressive modifications,