The Fruitful Facets of Gallon's Polyhedron 439
Darwinism and the mutation theory
CONFUSING RHETORIC, AND THE PERSONAL FACTOR. The Mutation Theory—in
its logic, on its face (and clearly in the eyes of de Vries' contemporaries)—seems
so evidently contrary to the central tenets of Darwinism. Kellogg classified de
Vries' theory as one of the three major alternatives to natural selection (with
Lamarckism and orthogenesis as the other candidates). De Vries himself, and with
relish, explained his theory in the light of Galton's polyhedron (pp. 342-351), the
primary anti-Darwinian metaphor of his day:
Little shocks make it totter; it oscillates round its position of equilibrium
and finally returns to it. A slightly stronger push however can make it go so
far that it comes to lie on a new side. The oscillations round a position of
equilibrium are the fluctuations; the transitions from one position of
equilibrium to another correspond to the mutations. The track left behind by
the rolling polyhedron can be regarded as the line of descent of the species;
each subdivision of this track, corresponding to a side of the polyhedron,
representing a particular elementary species; each transitional movement to
a new position of mutation (1909a, volume 1, p. 55).Yet I began this section on de Vries with a strange story about the uniquely
sour note that he introduced into Darwin's biggest centenary party by torturing a
Darwinian quotation to gain his master's supposed approval for a manifestly un-
Darwinian view about the nature of variability (pp. 415-417). I then discussed the
powerful psychological and intellectual hold that Darwin exerted upon de Vries
through his status as personal hero (pp. 421-423). I claim no insight into the
subtleties of psychology, but de Vries' relationship with Darwin surely ranks as the
most complex, enigmatic, and contradictory personal interaction discussed in this
book. Other paired opponents—Cuvier and Geoffroy, Weismann and Spencer, for
example—battled in public and provide the usual stuff of controversy. But de Vries
met Darwin only once, and their struggle unfolded later, and largely within de
Vries' own head.
De Vries managed (and apparently needed) to support several contradictory
propositions, to play several roles at the same time: a loyal disciple, who would
neither propagate nor tolerate any diminution of his master's fame and Tightness; a
shrewd compromiser, who would bring a glorious past into harmony with later
discoveries; a novel revolutionary, who could sweep aside the old and establish a
startlingly different theory as a source of personal fame. In documenting the range
of de Vries' rhetorical strategies, one can only experience the frustration of any
careful and attentive reader in trying to locate a coherent center among the welter
of contradictory claims. * Consider de Vries' several positions:
*For this reason, I emphasize the logic of argument, rather than the psychologic of
presentation, throughout this book. If a minimal Darwinian "essence" resides within the
logic of my three key statements about levels of selection, creativity in selection, and
extrapolationism, then the Darwinian commitments of other scientists can be judged by
degree of