575.2 313 



II 



The Study of Variations 

 A Reply 



"The direct action of the conditions of life ... is a totally dis- 

 tinct CONSIDEllATION FKOM THE EFFECTS OF NATUKAL SELECTION ; FOR NATURAL 

 SELECTION . . . HAS NO RELATION WHATEVER TO THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF ANY 

 MODIFICATION OF STRUCTURE."^ 



IF all writers on this subject would or could carry this passage 

 from Darwin's writings branded in their minds, there would 

 be no confusion in any question upon the Origin of Species. It is 

 when Neo-Darwinians and others speak of Natural Selection eitlier 

 as a " cause," direct or indirect, of variation, in any sense of the 

 word, or even, as Darwin said, an " aid " or " means," misconceptions 

 will arise. 



I do not know who Mr J. Lionel Tayler may be, but he has 

 elected " to base his argument on [my] position." He is good enough 

 to say that he does not " doubt the facts adduced, or even . . . assert 

 that the conclusions are incorrect . . . but that . . . the arguments 

 drawn from the facts do not . . . prove the position taken up." 



I do not quite see, if the conclusions be correct, how the argu- 

 ment can be faulty ! 



He quotes my five summaries and proposes " to deal with the last 

 conclusion first," viz. — " A new variety, and thence a new species, 

 would be produced 'without the aid of Natural Selection' (Darwin)." 



He says : — " It is still necessary to show not merely that all 

 are similarly modified, but also that they are all equally 

 thoroughly so, otherwise the variation that is most adapted 

 will probably, or at least possibly, be selected, and Natural 

 Selection will thus become a factor of some importance." 



This passage shows incontestably that Mr Tayler has not yet 

 grasped the purport of Neo-Lamarckism, which is precisely that 

 embodied in the words of Darwin quoted, or the discovery of " the 

 primary cause of modifications." There is no necessity whatever 

 for all the individuals to be equally, though they be all similarly, 

 modified. Natural Selection need not enter so timidly as he 

 imagines, but may boldly kill off as many as it pleases, and thus 

 " become a factor of some importance " ; but this has nothing what- 

 ever to do with the primary cause of the origination of the definite 



' "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii., p. 272. 



