254 OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY 



characters had been slowly acquired through natural selec- 

 tion ; namely, by individuals having been born with slight 

 profitable modifications, which were inherited by the off- 

 spring, and that these again varied and again were selected, 

 and so onward. But with the working ant we have an 

 insect differing greatly from its parents, yet absolutely 

 sterile ; so that it could never have transmitted successively 

 acquired modifications of structure or instinct to its pro- 

 geny. It may well be asked how it is possible to reconcile 

 this case with the theory of natural selection ? 



First, let it be remembered that we have innumerable in- 

 stances, both in our domestic productions and in those in 

 a state of nature, of all sorts of differences of inherited 

 structure which are correlated with certain ages and with 

 either sex. We have differences correlated not only with 

 one sex, but with that short period when the reproductive 

 system is active, as in the nuptial plumage of many birds, 

 and in the hooked jaws of the male salmon. We have even 

 slight differences in the horns of different breeds of cattle 

 in relation to an artificially imperfect state of the male 

 sex. for oxen of certain breeds have longer horns than the 

 oxen of other breeds, relatively to the length of the horns 

 in both the bulls and cows of these same breeds. Hence, 

 I can see no great difficulty in any character becoming cor- 

 related with the sterile condition of certain members of 

 insect communities ; the difficulty lies in understanding how 

 such correlated modifications of structure could have been 

 slowly accumulated by natural selection. 



This difficulty, though appearing insuperable, is less- 

 ened, or, as I believe, disappears, when it is remembered 

 that selection may be applied to the family, as well 

 as to the individual, and may thus gain the desired end. 

 Breeders of cattle wish the flesh and fat to be well marbled 

 together. An animal thus characterized has been slaugh- 

 tered, but the breeder has gone with confidence to the 

 same stock and has succeeded. Such faith may be placed in 

 the power of selection, that a breed of cattle always yield- 

 ing oxen with extraordinarily long horns, could, it is prob- 

 able, be formed by carefully watching which individual 

 bulls and cows, when matched, produced oxen with the 

 longest horns ; and yet no one ox would ever have propa- 

 gated its kind. Here is a better and real illustration: 

 According to M. Verlot, some varieties of the double 

 annual stock, from having been long and carefully selected 



