CHAPTEE VIIL 



DESIGN. 



WHAT Mr. Darwin tells his children about adaptation 

 lie had already told Asa Gray : " To talk of climate or 

 Lamarckian habit producing such adaptations as in the 

 woodpecker, with its feet and tail, beak and tongue, to 

 climb the tree and secure insects, is futile." And then 

 he adds, "This difficulty I believe I have surmounted." 

 Mr. Darwin believes, that is, that his theory of natural 

 selection accounts for design. He is very strong in his 

 rejection of " the action of surrounding conditions " in 

 regard to adaptations. In that, he has plainly before his 

 mind the stress which is laid by other naturalists on 

 such external influences as climate, cold and heat, soil, etc. 

 We know, for example, that herds of horses that have 

 remained close to alluvial regions usually consist of 

 individuals of a large size, owing, as it is said, to " the 

 rankness of their food;" and this applies to the large 

 horses of the English middle counties. These are sprung 

 indeed from horses Flemish and Dutch, already large ; 

 but still they have had the further advantage of the 

 " lowland rich alluvial pastures of the plains." So, also, 

 it is said that "climate and peculiar feeding" have, in 

 domesticating the ox, actually reduced his bulk and 

 diminished his very bones ; while the same causes have 

 been seen very specially to act in a similar way on 



