. Darwinism : an exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications. Natural selection; Evolution. FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS 427 immense body of interesting facts showing the influence of food, of light, of temperature, of still water and moving Avater, of the atmosphere and its currents, of gravitation, and of other organisms, in modifying the forms and other characteristics of animals.^ He believes that these various influences produce a direct and important eff'ect, and that this eff"ect is accumu- lated by inheritance; yet he acknowledges that we have no direct ev
. Darwinism : an exposition of the theory of natural selection, with some of its applications. Natural selection; Evolution. FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS 427 immense body of interesting facts showing the influence of food, of light, of temperature, of still water and moving Avater, of the atmosphere and its currents, of gravitation, and of other organisms, in modifying the forms and other characteristics of animals.^ He believes that these various influences produce a direct and important eff'ect, and that this eff"ect is accumu- lated by inheritance; yet he acknowledges that we have no direct evidence of this, and there is hardly a single case adduced in the book which is not equally Avell explained by adaptation, brought about by the survival of beneficial varia- tions. Perhaps the most remarkable case he has brought forward is that of the transformation of species of crustaceans by a change in the saltness of the water (see Fig. 35). Artemia salina lives in brackish water, while A. Milhausenii inhabits water Avhich is much Salter. They diff"er greatly in the form of the tail-lobes, and in the presence or absence of spines upon the tail, and had always been considered perfectly distinct species. Yet either was transformed into the other in a few generations, during which the saltness of the water was gradually altered. Yet more, A. salina was gradually accustomed to fresher water, and in the course of a few generations, when the water had become perfectly fresh, the species Avas changed into Branchipus stag- nalis, which had always been con- sidered to belong to a different genus on account of differences in the form of the antennse and of the posterior segments of the body (see Fig. 36). This certainly appears to be a proof of change of conditions producing a change of form independently of selection, and of that change of form, while remaining under the same con- ditions, being inherited. Yet there is this peculiarity in the case, that there is a chemical chan
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Keywords: ., bookauthorwallacealfredrussel18, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880
