THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 63 



in the case of albinos, etc.) ; atavism when a latent character becomes 

 active, as when a lost character reappears; and saltation where a new 

 combination of characters is produced and where the new form being 

 crossed with the parent-stock does not give the Mendelian ratio, as in 

 the case of the ancon ram, the japanned peacock, etc., if, in fact, these 

 cases do not really follow the same rule of inheritance as do the 

 elementary varieties. 



De Vries has pointed out that each step, each mutation, may not 

 have been any greater than the difference between the extremes of 

 fluctuating variations, and if this is the case we see that evolution may 

 have been a very gradual process, although not necessarily a very slow 

 one. Darwin's idea that the process of evolution was very gradual is 

 in full harmony with the mutation theory, but on the latter view we 

 can better understand how evolution may at times have been relatively 

 rapid, and that no such enormous periods are required for the process, 

 as the Darwinian school is inclined to assume. 



The time has come, I think, when we are beginning to see the 

 process of evolution in a new light. Nature makes new species out- 

 right. Amongst these new species there will be some that manage to 

 find a place where they may continue to exist. How well they are 

 suited to such places will be shown, in one respect, by the number of 

 individuals that they can bring to maturity. Some of the new forms 

 may be well adapted to certain localities, and will flourish there; 

 others may eke out a precarious existence, because they do not find 

 a place to which they are well suited, and can not better adapt them- 

 selves to the conditions under which they live ; and there will be others 

 that can find no place at all in which they can develop, and will not 

 even be able to make a start. From this point of view the process 

 of evolution appears in a more kindly light than when we imagine 

 that success is only attained through the destruction of all rivals. 

 The process appears not so much the result of the destruction of vast 

 numbers of individuals, for the poorly adapted will not be able to make 

 even a beginning. Evolution is not a war of all against all, but it is 

 largely a creation of new types for the unoccupied, or poorly occupied 

 places in nature. 



Conclusions. 



In the preceding pages I have tried to bring into contrast the 

 point of view of the Darwinian school and the newer conception of the 

 survival of elementary species. I have tried to show what selection has 

 meant to the selectionist. They have never hesitated to take each 

 particular character of an animal or plant, and dress it up in more 

 perfect garments, while the body of the species, if I may so speak, has 

 been left as it was before. There has been a continual tampering with 

 the characters of the organism with the laudable intention of doing 



