Nor, so far as I am aware, have any of the NECESSARY consequences of
Darwin's hypotheses been proved by any one else, to stand in clear and
irreconcilable contradiction. And yet, as the most profound students of
the animal kingdom are amongst Darwin's opponents, it would seem that it
ought to have been an easy matter for them to crush him long since
beneath a mass of absurd and contradictory inferences, if any such were
to be drawn from his theory. To this want of demonstrated contradictions
I think we may ascribe just the same importance in Darwin's favour, that
his opponents have attributed to the absence of demonstrated
intermediate forms between the species of the various strata of the
earth. Independently of the reasons which Darwin gives for the
preservation of such intermediate forms being only exceptional, this
last mentioned circumstance will not be regarded as of very great
significance by any one who has traced the development of an animal upon
larvae fished from the sea, and had to seek in vain for months, and even
years, for those transitional forms, which he nevertheless knew to be
swarming around him in thousands.
A few examples may show how contradictions might come forth as necessary
results of the Darwinian hypotheses.
It seems to be a necessity for all crabs which remain for a long time
out of the water (but why is of no consequence to us here), that air
shall penetrate from behind into the branchial cavity.
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