SPECIFIC GENESIS. 



To THE Editor of the 'North American Review': — 



Sir, — The rapid growth of physical science, and the 

 constant publication of ever-new observations, make such 

 demands on the time of naturalists that an author actively 

 engaged upon a subject covering the whole field of biology 

 cannot be expected to reply directly to critics, unless under 

 very exceptional circumstances. 



I have to thank Mr. Chauncey Wright for having been so 

 obliging as to devote much space, and necessarily a consider- 

 able portion of his valuable time, to an examination of my 

 recent work, the Genesis of Species. Nevertheless I must 

 confess that, with all respect for his conspicuous talents and 

 for his deserved reputation, I should not have undertaken 

 the following few words of explanation but for his paper's 

 wide circulation in England and elsewhere by Mr. Darwin. 



Any criticism published by Mr. Darwin himself, or by 

 Professor Huxley, I should always deem it a duty carefully 

 to consider and, if possible, reply to ; and the very extensive 

 circulation by Mr. Darwin of a reprint of Mr. Chauncey 

 Wright's remarks, appears to me to amount to such an 

 impUed adoption of them, as to demand for them a consider- 

 ation somewhat similar to that which I should accord them 

 were Mr. Darwin himself their author. 



Mr. Wright's criticism touches upon so many matters of 

 detail that it is not altogether easy to ascertain his main 



