i860.] BRONN'S objections. 1 39 



novo^ I would have used "natural preservation." For I find 



men like Harvey of Dublin cannot understand me, though he 



has read the book twice. Dr. Gray of the British Museum 



remarked to me that, " selection was obviously impossible with 



plants ! No one could tell him how it could be possible ! " 



And he may now add that the author did not attempt it to 



him ! 



Yours ever affectionately, 



C. Darwin. 



C. Darwin to C. Lyell. 



15 Marine Parade, Eastbourne, 



October 8th [i860]. 



My dear Lyell, — I send the [English] translation of 

 Bronn,* the first part of the chapter with generalities and praise 

 is not translated. There are some good hits. He makes an 

 apparently, and in part truly, telling case against me, says 

 that I cannot explain why one rat has a longer tail and 

 another longer ears, &c. But he seems to muddle in assuming 

 that these parts did not all vary together, or one part so in- 

 sensibly before the other, as to be in fact contemporaneous. 

 I might ask the creationist whether he thinks these differences 

 in the two rats of any use, or as standing in some relation from 

 laws of growth ; and if he admits this, selection might come 

 into play. He who thinks that God created animals unlike 

 for mere sport or variety, as man fashions his clothes, will 

 not admit any force in my argumentum ad homineiJt. 



Bronn blunders about my supposing several Glacial peri- 

 ods, whether or no such ever did occur. 



He blunders about my supposing that development goes 

 on at the same rate in all parts of the world. I presume that 

 he has misunderstood this from the supposed migration into 

 all regions of the more dominant forms. 



* A MS. translation of Bronn's chapter of objections at the end of his 

 German translation of the ' Origin of Species.' 



