166 SPECIES NOT . 



Mr. Darwin attempts to upset the fact of the 

 original hexagonal form of the cell, according 

 to the modern doctrine that the cell becomes 

 hexagonal by pressure; a case which is, in my 

 opinion, so far from being made out, that I 

 think every argument, particularly the observa- 

 tion of Mr. Smith, that single cells are some- 

 times hexagonal, is against such a mode of 

 explanation. 



Neuter insects is another difficulty which Mr. 

 Darwin says he at first thought insuperable, 

 and ''actually fatal to my whole theory. " The 

 working neuter ant, for instance, is totally 

 different from its parents. Correlation is the 

 agent which Mr. Darwin considers gets him out 

 of his dilemma, for he can see no real difficulty 

 in any character having become correlated with 

 the sterile condition of certain members of insect 

 communities. But the real difficulty, he says, 

 is to understand how such correlated modifications 

 could have been slowly accumulated by natural 

 selection. This is got over by assuming that 

 natural selection may be applied to the family, 

 as well as to the individual. Thus, because it 

 might have been found that a sterile condition 

 of certain members of the community has been 

 advantageous to the community, ergo, the fertile 

 members of that community flourished, and 

 transmitted to their fertile offspring, a tendency 

 to produce sterile members! 



But the climax of Mr. Darwin's difficulties 

 arises when he finds among the neuters of different 



