specific Genesis 109 



characters has also been * a serious error/ whether it be not 

 rather a fortunate than an * unfortunate ' one. 



Mr. Wright challenges the production of a sudden adap- 

 tive modification of a race, wild or domesticated, ' not refer- 

 able by known physiological laws to the past history of the 

 race on the theory of evolution.' In this statement I must in 

 the first place object to the introduction of the words ' on the 

 theory of evolution,' as that theory, far from being opposed, 

 is, on the contrary, adopted and contended for by me, and I 

 do not understand how Mr. Wright can have inserted them 

 unless by inadvertance. Instances, however, of modifications, 

 the production of which he desiderates, can readily be sup- 

 plied. Thus the Cashmere sheep, when transferred to Europe, 

 lost their long wool in a few generations, and this could not 

 possibly have been due to Natural Selection. Again, the 

 marine animals now Hving in Swedish lakes have become 

 remarkably transformed, and the instance noticed by Mr. 

 Darwin as to the Mediterranean oyster, though not evidently 

 adaptive, is probably so, and if so would be in point. There 

 was, however, no need to bring such cases forward, for surely 

 it was fair to take Mr. Darwin's own estimate of what facts lie 

 would consider fatal, and such facts I claim to have brought 

 forward, in sufiicient number, in my book. I can only ex- 

 press my profound regret that I should be so unfortunate as 

 to seem to Mr. Chauncey Wright to have made an ' unfathom- 

 able translation' of the theory of Natural Selection. Mr. 

 Darwin nowhere himself says, with Mr. Wright, that the 

 * slightness ' of the variations he speaks of ' is only relative to 

 the differences between the characters of the species'; and 

 I cannot but think Mr. Wright himself misconceives 

 Mr. Darwin's meaning, for I believe the latter gentleman 

 would not speak of the sudden development of a large 

 proboscis, like that of semnopithecus nasalis, as a 'shght' 

 variation. 



