188 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE 



the lower animals might range into a cold climate and perish 

 there every winter ; and yet, owing to advantages gained 

 through natural selection, survive from year to year by 

 means of its seeds or ova ? Mr. E. Ray Lankester has 

 recently discussed this subject, and he concludes, as far 

 as its extreme complexity allows him to form a judgment, 

 that longevity is generally related to the standard of each 

 species in the scale of organization, as well as to the amount 

 of expenditure in reproduction and in general activity. And 

 these conditions have, it is probable, been largely determined 

 through natural selection. 



It has been argued that, as none of the animals and plants 

 of Egypt, of which we know anything, have changed during 

 the last three or four thousand years, so probably have none 

 in any part of the world. But, as Mr. G. H. Lewes has 

 remarked, this line of argument proves too much, for the 

 ancient domestic races figured on the Egyptian monuments, 

 or embalmed, are closely similar or even identical with those 

 now living : yet all naturalists admit that such races have 

 been produced through the modification of their original 

 types. The many animals which have remained unchanged 

 since the commencement of the glacial period, would have 

 been an incomparably stronger case, for these have been 

 exposed to great changes of climate and have migrated over 

 great distances ; whereas, in Egypt, during the last several 

 thousand years, the conditions of life, as far as we know, 

 have remained absolutely uniform. The fact of little or no 

 modification having been effected since the glacial period, 

 would have been of some avail against those who believe 

 in an innate and necessary law of development, but is 

 powerless against the doctrine of natural selection or the 

 survival of the fittest, which implies that when variations 

 or individual differences of a beneficial nature happen i>o 

 arise, these will be preserved ; but this will be effected only 

 under certain favorable circumstances. 



The celebrated palaeontologist, Bronn, at the close of his 

 German translation of this work, asks how, on the principle 

 of natural selection, can a variety live side by side with the 

 parent species ? If both have become fitted for slightly 

 different habits of life or conditions, they might live to- 

 gether; and if we lay on one side polymorphic species, in 

 which the variability seems to be of a peculiar nature, and 

 all mere temporary variations, such as size, albinism, etc., 

 the more permanent varieties are generally found, as far a* 



