Page:The advancement of science by experimental research - the Harveian oration, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 27th, 1883 (IA b24869958).pdf/39

35 generations would take more extended flight to warmer climes. The poison bag of the cobra or of the rattle snake would according to the same theory by slow de- grees attain its deadly venom, but whence the first beginning?

The difficulty of the non-propagation of hybrid species has not been fully overcome in these reasonings; neither do we witness the interminable variations of species which would exist, if the theory of self-progres- sive formation were correct.

Whilst allowing all the facts that Darwin discloses, let us keep to the facts them- selves, and not be led into hypotheses which are not proven. Science has been advanced by facts observed and proved, but where deductions are brought forward and received as truth, when the basis is only hypothetical, science has not been helped, neither by Galen nor by Harvey, nor by any student of nature. The won- derful and beautiful truths elucidated in embryology do not prove the statements of evolutionists, but rather shew that a higher power controls the development.