10 THE EVOLUTION OF 



I have already demonstrated with many instances how 

 a biological observation of several species of butterflies 

 living either under very different or similar conditions is 

 absolutely in opposition to such a theory. Two new instan- 

 ces have since come to my knowledge. The first was named 

 by Dr. K. Jordan '), stating that the differences in the 

 development of black on the upperside between the summer 

 and spring broods of Fapilio Machaon L. in Japan are 

 the reverse of the differences in colour between the summer 

 and spring broods of that butterfly in Europe. The other 

 one relates to Vanessa urticae L. and seems doubly remark- 

 able to me, as I have been particularly and amply digress- 

 ing on this species, it having, moreover, played a notorious 

 part in the above named experiments. In those experiments 

 the var. polaris Stdgr. is always expressly named as a dark 

 form from North-Europe (Lapland), its dark colour being 

 considered as the consequence of its living in a colder 

 climate. I had been obliged to state in my paper (on page 

 169) that the specimen of that var. polaris Stdgr. known 

 to me do not much differ in colour from some dark Dutch 

 ones, that happen to live here next to other lighter co- 

 loured ones, and now it appears to me that three English 

 entomologists, at the meeting of the Entomological Society 

 of London on Dec. 7th 1898 ^), exhibited several specimens 

 of that butterfly, partly caught, partly bred, all of them 

 originally from Norway (69° 50' N.), most resembling English 



suche liber den Einfluss ausserer Verhaltnisse auf die Gestaltung der Schraetter- 

 linge (Illustrierte Zeitschrift fiir Entomologie, IV). It is a well known fact that, 

 by administering them alcohol, one can stay the growth of young dogs and so 

 breed exceedingly tiny ones. But this does not explain why some races, as for 

 instance Terriers or King Charles are so much smaller than Newfoundlanders 

 or Ulmer-dogs! It is the great mistake Darwin made to derive from the ab- 

 normal phenomenon of an artificial selection the normal course of organic evo- 

 lution and to base his theory of natural selection thereupon. That is the reason 

 why it is getting more and more obvious that this theory is a false one. 



1) An Examination of the Classification and some other results of Elmer's 

 researches on Eastern Papilios: A Ileview and Reply (Novitates Zoologicae, 

 vol. V, 1898). 



2) Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London. 1898. 



Notes from, tlie Leyden !Museuni , Vol. ^XII. 



