Notwithstanding this protest the Wallaceians continue on their course, and give to the world a spurious Darwinism. It is our belief that were Darwin alive to-day his sympathies would be with us, and not with those who call themselves his followers. It was one of Darwin’s strong points that he never avoided facts. If new facts came to light which were incompatible with a theory of his, he promptly modified his theory. Since his death a number of new facts have come to light which, in our opinion, plainly indicate that the theory of natural selection as enunciated by Darwin needs considerable modification.
We have in this book set forth certain of these facts and indicated the directions in which the Darwinian theory seems to require modification.
This volume originated as the result of several conversations we, the joint authors, had last summer. We discovered that we had a great many ideas in common on the subject of evolution. This seemed strange, seeing that our education had not been on the same lines. One of us took a degree in natural science at Cambridge, and subsequently entered His Majesty’s Indian Civil Service, but continued his zoological studies in India as a hobby. The other, a naturalist from childhood, nevertheless took a classical degree at Oxford, then received a technical zoological training, adopted zoology as a profession, and held for some years a position in the Natural History Museum at Calcutta.
Our conversations revealed that we were both of opinion that biology is in an unhealthy condition, especially in England, and that the science sorely needs some fresh impetus. Neither of us had the time to attempt, single-handed, to give the required impetus, but as one of us happened to be home on eighteen months’ leave, we thought we might undertake the task in collaboration.
We felt that we might collaborate the more successfully because the large number of facts collected by the one of us form the necessary complement to the philosophical studies of the other.
We have endeavoured, so far as possible, to avoid technical terms, and have made a special point of quoting, wherever practicable, familiar animals as examples, in order that the work may make its appeal not only to the zoologist but to the general reader.
It may, perhaps, be urged against us that we have quoted too freely from popular writings, including those of which we are the authors. Our reply to this is that the study of bionomics, the science of living animals, occupies so small a place in English scientific literature that we have been compelled to have recourse to popular works for many of our facts; and we would, moreover, point out that a popular work is not necessarily inaccurate in its information.
In conclusion, we would warn the reader against the danger of confounding Inference with Fact. The failure to distinguish between the two has vitiated much of the work of the Wallaceian school of biologists.
Facts are always to be accepted. Inferences should be scrutinised with the utmost care.
In making our deductions, we have endeavoured to act without bias. We shall, therefore, welcome any new facts, be they consistent with, or opposed to, our inferences.