*Hugo deVries (1848-1935) was a Dutch botanist and one of the three men who, in 1900, rediscovered Mendel’s paper on the law of heredity. One day while working with primroses, deVries thought he had discovered a new species. This made headlines. He actually had found a new variety (sub-species) of the primrose, but deVries conjectured that perhaps his “new species” had suddenly sprung into existence as a “mutation.” He theorized that new species “saltated” (leaped), that is, continually spring into existence. His idea is called the saltation theory.

This was a new idea; and, during the first half of the 20th century, many evolutionist biologists, finding absolutely no evidence supporting “natural selection,” switched from natural selection (“Darwinism”) to mutations (“neo-Darwinism”) as the mechanism by which the theorized cross-species changes occurred.

Later in this book, we will discover that mutations cannot produce evolution either, for they are always harmful. In addition, decades of experimentation have revealed they never produce new species.

In order to prove the mutation theory, deVries and other researchers immediately began experimentation on fruit flies; and it has continued ever since—but totally without success in producing new species.

In 1914 *Edward Jeffries discovered that deVries’ primrose was just a new variety, not a new species.

Decades later, it was discovered that most plant varieties are produced by variations in gene factors, rarely by mutations. Those caused by gene variations may be strong (although not as strong as the average original), but those varieties produced by mutations are always weak and have a poor survival rate. See chapter 10, Mutations, for much, much more on the mutation problem.

Source: Evolution Handbook