Xo. 1.] THE ORIGIN OP SPECIES. 15 



ouly provisionally."* McCoshf admits that • it contains much 

 truth, but not all, and overlooks more than it perceives." Les- 

 ley! says, "All agree that it is true if kept within the regions of 

 variety^ but it is disputed whether it be true for actual sj^ecific 

 differences." Wallace denies its sufficiency in the case of man, 

 and Darwin himself has modified his views somewhat in this last 

 edition of the " Origin of Species;" furthermore, he admits "the 

 existence of difficulties so serious that he can hardly reflect on 

 them without being staggered" (p. 167) ; and that "scarcely a 

 single point is discussed on which facts cannot be adduced oftep 

 apparently leading to conclusions opposite to mine" (p. 18). 

 Indeed, with characteristic candour, he specifies certain ideas which 

 if proved, would be fatal : " If it could be proved that any part 

 of the structure of one species had been formed for the exclusive 

 good of another species, it would annihilate my theory" (p. 196). 

 We may, for example, yet learn the use which the "rattle" and 

 the expanded hood have for the rattlesnake and the cobra, but 

 Mivart is inclined to believe they are rather injurious, since they 

 warn the prey (p. 50). Another such "' fatal idea" is the doc- 

 trine that "many structures have been created for beauty in the 

 eye of man or for mere variety" (p. 194). And here our author 

 seems to contradict himself when, upon the same page, he admits 

 that " many structures are now of no direct use to their posses- 

 sors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors" — 

 a subject which has been well discussed by the Duke of Argyll. § 

 The theory of natural selection im.plies that all changes are 

 minute and gradual ; and also that only useful structures are 

 preserved and augmented. Prof. Mivart points out the difficulty 

 of explaining the origin of the unsymmetrical form of the floun- 

 ders, etc. (p. 37), of the limbs of animals which, in their earliest 

 and minutest form, must have been mere buds or roughnesses, 

 and thus rather impediments to the progress of our ancient aqua- 

 tic progenitor (p. 39). Darwin further admits that "it is im- 

 possible to conceive by what steps the electric organs of fishes 

 were produced (p. 184), also that the absence of imperfectly 

 organized forms in the lowest strata of the earth's crust is inex- 



• " Man's Place in Nature," p. 128. 



t Report of recent lectures. 



t " Man's Origin and Destiny." 



§ " Roign of Law," seventh edition, p. 230. 



