4o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The aid of Francis Darwin, his son is important here. The chief 

 sources of information are the two editions of the " Journal of Re- 

 searches," and his early notes and queries printed after his death. The 

 first edition of the " Journal " was finished in 1838, though not pub- 

 lished till the following year. It was in October, 1838, that he read 

 Malthus's " Essay on Population," the incident that started him on the 

 road to natural selection. The first edition of the " Journal " was, con- 

 sequently, practically uninfluenced by his famous causal hypothesis. 

 Discussing this early period of his father's ideas, the son writes : 

 After reading the second edition of the "Journal" (published in 1845) 

 we find a strong sense of surprise at how far developed were his views in 1837. 2 



It will be observed that 1837 was the year before the Malthus essay 



was read. But the evidence from posthumous notes is more to the 



point. The son remarks : 



We are enabled to form an opinion on this point from the note-books in 

 which he wrote down detached thoughts and queries. 



From these I quote a few. 



Propagation explains why modern animals same type as extinct, which is 

 law, almost proved. 



If we choose to let conjecture run wild, then animals, our fellow brethren 

 in pain, disease, death, suffering and famine — our slaves in the most laborious 

 works, our companions in our amusements — they partake (of) our origin in 

 one common ancestor — we all may be melted together. 



It is a wonderful fact, horse, elephant, and mastodon, dying out about 

 same time in such different quarters. 



They die, without they change, like golden pippins; it is a generation of 

 species like generation of indivduals. 



... so with useless wings under elytra of beetles — born from beetles with 

 wings, and modified; if simple creation merely, would have been without them. 



So much for evidence that Darwin was an evolutionist before he was 

 a natural selectionist or had any other causal hypothesis. As to the 

 relative value set by him on his part in establishing the " mere fact " 

 of evolution, and his effort to explanation of that fact, the son's testi- 

 mony is again important. He writes : 



It comes out very clearly that . . . my father did not rejoice over the 

 success of his special view of evolution, viz., that modification is mainly due 

 to natural selection; on the contrary, he felt strongly that the really impor- 

 tant point was that the doctrine of Descent should be accepted. 3 



Any one who knows Darwin's life-work in spirit as well as in letter 

 will accept this statement unhesitatingly. Utterances of like import by 

 Darwin himself are numerous. For brevity's sake I give but one. 

 Writing to Asa Gray in 1863, he said : 



1 have sometimes almost wished that Lyell had pronounced against me. 

 When I say " me," I only mean change of species by descent. That seems to 

 me the turning-point. Personally, of course, I care much about natural selec- 



2 "Letters," I., p. 367. 

 8 "Letters," II., p. 163. 



