THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



laws of probability that he is willing to rest the whole 

 multitudinous variation in the world, even granting a 

 "tendency to vary in the same direction," on "several 

 instances which could be given." But even this admis- 

 sion will not help Darwin. Suppose a large proportion 

 of the giraffes to be born and to grow to maturity 

 with an extra inch in length of neck and suppose 

 so severe a scarcity of food to occur that this extra 

 inch is a decisive factor in obtaining food. The 

 necks of mature male giraffes are several inches longer 

 than the necks of all female giraffes, and these, again, 

 are much longer than those of young giraffes of both 

 sexes between the ages of weaning and maturity. Is 

 there any escape from the conclusion that all the fe- 

 males and all the young giraffes of both sexes would 

 die and leave the race of giraffes to be continued by a 

 herd of favoured males, unless these males gallantly 

 pulled down the boughs to the reach of their starving 

 families^ 



Let us consider a few more cases briefly. Darwin 

 wrote Huxley in 1859: "You have most cleverly hit 

 on one point, which has greatly troubled me ; if, as I 

 think, external conditions produce little direct effect, 

 what the devil determines each particular variation"? 

 What makes a tuft of feathers come on a cock's head, 

 or moss on a moss rose'?"^^ What, indeed! We have 

 seen that the appearance of the feather is an enormous 

 advantage as it means the conquest of locomotion in 



25 Origin of Species, vol. I, p. 28. 



1:2283 



