1859-^863] REVIEWS 141 



ment of the planets, because he could not show what the Letter 95 

 attraction of gravity is. 



The expression " Wahl der Lebens-Weise " l makes me 

 doubt whether B. understands what I mean by Natural 

 Selection, as I have told him. He says (if I understand him) 

 that you ought to be on the same side with me. 



P.S. Sunday afternoon. I have kept back this to thank 

 you for your letter, with much news, received this morning. 

 My conscience is uneasy at the time you waste in amusing 

 and interesting me. I was very curious to hear about 

 Phillips. The review in the Annals is, as I was convinced, by 

 Wollaston, 2 for I have had a very cordial letter from him this 

 morning. 



I send by this post an attack in the Gardeners' Chronicle 

 by Harvey 3 (a first-rate botanist, as you probably know). 

 It seems to me rather strange ; he assumes the permanence 

 of monsters, whereas monsters are generally sterile, and not 

 often inheritable. But grant his case, it comes [to this], that 

 I have been too cautious in not admitting great and sudden 

 variations. Here again comes in the mischief 'of my abstract. 

 In fuller MS. I have discussed the parallel case of a normal 

 fish like a monstrous gold-fish. 



I end my discussion by doubting, because all cases of 

 monstrosities which resemble normal structures which I could 



1 " Die fruchtbarste und allgemeinste Ursache der Varietaten- 

 Bildung ist jedoch die Wahl der Lebens-Weise" (loc. cit., p. 112). 



2 A Bibliographical Notice " On the Origin of Species by means of 

 Natural Selection ; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle 

 for Life." (Annals and Mag., Vol. V., pp. 132-43, 1860). The notice 

 is not signed. Referring to the article, in a letter to Lyell, Feb. I5th, 

 1860, Darwin writes : " I am perfectly convinced . . . that the review 

 in the Annals is by Wollaston ; no one else in the world would have 

 used so many parentheses " (Life and Letters, II., p. 284). 



, 3 William Henry Harvey (181 1 -66) was the author of several botanical 

 works, principally on Algae ; he held the botanical Professorship at 

 Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1857 succeeded Professor Allman in the 

 Chair of Botany in Dublin University. (See Life and Letters, II., 

 pp. 274-75). I n the Gardeners' Chronicle of Feb. iSth, 1860, Harvey 

 described a case of monstrosity in Begonia frigida, which he argued was 

 hostile to the theory of Natural Selection. The passage about Harvey's 

 attack was published in the Life and Letters, II., p. 275. 



