ii8 Specific Genesis 



Passing to details of criticism, Mr. Wright proceeds to 

 consider the question of the giraffe's neck, and I am asked 

 a rather startling question: 'Can Mr. Mivart suppose that, 

 having fairly called in question the importance of the high- 

 feeding use of the giraffe's neck, he has thereby destroyed the 

 utility of the neck altogether, not only to the theory of 

 Natural Selection, but also to the animal itself V At the 

 first glance this looks as if I had brought myself within the 

 grasp of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 

 But I may, perhaps, be permitted to ask, in return, Can Mr. 

 Wright suppose that I ever dreamed that the structures of 

 animals are not useful to them, or that my position is an 

 altogether anti-teleological one ? Apparently possessed with 

 some such idea, Mr. Wright proceeds to exhibit the giraffe's 

 neck in the character of a ' watch-tower.' But this leaves the 

 question just where it was before. Of course I concede most 

 readily and fully that it is a most admirable watch-tower, as 

 it also is a most admirable high-reaching organ, but this tells 

 us nothing of its origim. In both cases the long neck is 

 most useful when you have got it ; but the question is how 

 it arose, and in this species alone. And similar and as 

 convincing arguments could be brought against the watch- 

 tower theory of origin as against the high-reaching theory, 

 and not only this, but also against every other theory 

 which could possibly be adduced. 



In reply to my objection as to different rates of increase 

 in strength and mass, as the animal increases in size by the 

 supposed transformation, Mr. Wright remarks, that ' the neck 

 may have grown at the expense of the hind parts in the 

 ancestors of the giraffe'; and adds, 'if we met with a man 

 with a longer neck than usual, we should not expect to find 

 him heavier, or relatively weaker, or requiring more food 

 on that account.' I reply, that if we should not do so it 

 would only be from ignorance ; for if, ceteris paribus, a man's 



