i860.] SCHAAFFHAUSEN. II3 



under domestication. I have not finished Schaaffhausen, as 

 I read German so badly. I have ordered a copy for myself, 

 and should like to keep yours till my own arrives, but will re- 

 turn it to you instantly if wanted. He admits statements 

 rather rashly, as I dare say I do. I see only one sentence as 

 yet at all approaching natural selection. 



There is a notice of me in the penultimate number of 'All 

 the Year Round,' but not worth consulting ; chiefly a well- 

 done hash of my own words. Your last note was very inter- 

 esting and consolatory to me. 



I have expressly stated that I believe physical conditions 

 have a more direct effect on plants than on animals. But the 

 more I study, the more I am led to think that natural selec- 

 tion regulates, in a state of nature, most trifling differences. 

 As squared stone, or bricks, or timber, are the indispensable 

 materials for a building, and influence its character, so is varia- 

 bility not only indispensable, but influential. Yet in the 

 same manner as the architect is the all important person in a 

 building, so is selection with organic bodies 



[The meeting of the British Association at Oxford in i860 

 is famous for two pitched battles over the ' Origin of Species.* 

 Both of them originated in unimportant papers. On Thurs- 

 day, June 28, Dr. Daubeny of Oxford made a communication 

 to Section D : " On the final causes of the sexuality of plants, 

 with particular reference to Mr. Darwin's work on the ' Origin 

 of Species.' " Mr. Huxley was called on by the President, but 

 tried (according to the Athenceum report) to avoid a discus- 

 sion, on the ground " that a general audience, in which senti- 

 ment would unduly interfere with intellect, was not the public 

 before which such a discussion should be carried on." How- 

 ever, the subject was not allowed to drop. Sir R. Owen (I 

 quote from the AtheiicEum, July 7, i860), who "wished to ap- 

 proach this subject in the spirit of the philosopher," expressed 

 his " conviction that there were facts by which the public 

 could come to some conclusion with regard to the probabili- 

 ties of the truth of Mr. Darwin's theory." He went on to 



