e mutability
of species was thus prominently raised.

Those who rate Lamarck no higher than did Huxley in his contemptuous
phrase "buccinator tantum," will scarcely deny that the sound of the
trumpet had carried far, or that its note was clear. If then there were
few who had already turned to evolution with positive conviction,
all scientific men must at least have known that such views had been
promulgated; and many must, as Huxley says, have taken up his own
position of "critical expectancy." (See the chapter contributed to the
"Life and Letters of Charles Darwin" II. page 195. I do not clearly
understand the sense in which Darwin wrote (Autobiography, ibid. I. page
87): "It has sometimes been said that the success of the "Origin" proved
'that the subject was in the air,' or 'that men's minds were prepared
for it.' I do not think that this is strictly true, for I occasionally
sounded not a few naturalists, and never happened to come across a
single one who seemed to doubt about the permanence of species." This
experience may perhaps have been an accident due to Darwin's isolation.
The literature of the period abounds with indications of "critical
expectancy." A most interesting expression of that feeling is given in
the charming account of the "Early Days of Darwinism" by Alfred Newton,
"Macmillan's Magazine", LVII. 1888, page 241. He tells how in 1858
when spending a dreary summer in Iceland, he and his friend, the
ornithologist John Wolley, in default of active occupation, spent
their days in discussion. "Both of us taking a keen interest in Natural
History, it was but reasonable that a question, which in those days
was always coming up wherever two or more naturalists were gathered
together, should be continually recurring. That question was, 'What is
a species?' and connected therewith was the other question, 'How did a
species begin?'... Now we were of course fairly well acquainted with what
had been published on these subjects." He then enumerates some of these
publications, mentioning among others T. Vernon Wollaston's "Variation
of Species"--a work which has in my opinion never been adequately
appreciated. He proceeds: "Of course we never arrived at anything like
a solution of these problems, general or special, but we felt very
strongly that a solution ought to be found, and that quickly, if the
study of Botany and Zoology was to make any great advance." He then
describes how on his return home he received th