x OBITUARY 283 



and varieties, drawn by even the most careful and 

 conscientious systematists l were of no less im- 

 portance to the author of the " Origin of Species " 

 than was the bearing of the Cirripede work upon 

 " the principles of a natural classification." (I. p. 

 81.) No one, as Darwin justly observes, has a 

 " right to examine the question of species who 

 has not minutely described many." (II. p. 39.) 



In September, 1854, the Cirripede work was 

 finished, " ten thousand barnacles " had been sent 

 " out of the house, all over the world," and Darwin 

 had the satisfaction of being free to turn again to 

 his " old notes on species." In 1855, he began to 

 breed pigeons, and to make observations on the 

 effects of use and disuse, experiments on seeds, 

 and so on, while resuming his industrious collec- 

 tion of facts, with a view " to see how far they 

 favour or are opposed to the notion that wild species 

 are mutable or immutable. I mean with my 

 utmost power to give all arguments and facts on 

 both sides. I have a number of people helping 

 me every way, and giving me most valuable 



1 "After describing a set of forms as distinct species, tearing 

 up my MS., and making them one species, tearing that up and 

 making them separate, and then making them one again (which 

 has happened to me), I have gnashed my teeth, cursed species, 

 and asked what sin I had committed to be so punished." (II. 

 p. 40. ) Is there any naturalist provided with a logical sense and 

 a large suite of specimens, who has not undergone pangs of the 

 sort described in this vigorous paragraph, which might, with 

 advantage, be printed on the title-page of every systematic 

 monograph as a warning to the uninitiated ? 



