ho 



SPECIES NOT 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE electric organs of fishes is another stumbling 

 block in Mr. Darwin's thorny and intricate path ; 

 bur, as he has admitted that "it is impossible to 

 conceive by what steps these wondrous organs 

 have been produced/' I accept the admission, and 

 go on at once to 



4. Organs of little importance. Under this 

 head we have some curious speculations. 



The tail of the giraffe looks, says Mr. Darwin, 

 like an artificially-constructed fly-flapper, and 

 naturally enough he thinks it incredible that this 

 could "have been adapted for its present purpose 

 by successive slight modifications, each better and 

 better, for so trifling an object as driving awnv 

 flies." But he requests us not to be too quick 

 in our judgment, for we know that organs, now 

 of trifling importance, may have been of great 

 consequence to an early progenitor, and having 

 been slowly perfected, then transmitted down to 

 these days; "and," continues Mr. Darwin, "a well- 

 developed tail having been formed in an aquatic 

 animal, it might subsequently come to be worked 

 in for all sorts of purposes, as a fly-flapper ^ an 

 organ of prehension, or as an aid in turning, as 

 with the dog, though the aid must be slight, 

 for the hare, with hardly any tail, can turn 

 quickly enough!" (Page 196.) 



