Evolution

That living organisms originated by a mechanical proce from earth or water, and that higher forms arose by transformation of lower ones was taught by the Greeks 500 B.C.; also by Aristotle, who was authority for 2,000 years. In the 17th century began the struggle between the theories of Special Creation and Evolution, the former supported by the school of Cuvier, the latter by Goethe, Buffon, Lamarck, etc.; but not till Darwin and Wallace (1859) published the theory that a new species could originate from an existing species by the natural selection, or superior survival of such of the offspring as do vary from their parents in ways better adapting them to their environment, did naturalists generally accept the doctrine of evolution. The method of evolution is in important details still under dispute. Weismann holds that variation is fortuitous and only the changes of germ cells, and not the characters acquired by the body, are hereditary, while the neo-Lamarckians think that the strain on organs not adapted in some way produces directly advantageous variations that are transmitted. Pasteur and Tyndall have shown that living matter always originates from living parents. Most biologists think this biogenetic law could not have held true "in the beginning." See DARWIN ISM.