324 DARWINIANISM. 



and the most of us would die. "What a vast mass of 

 human beings may have been choked off, as suggested 

 already, before the survivors, through natural selection, 

 had attained in sneezing to the exclusive use of the 

 nose ! 



I do think that it is with a certain pride of originality 

 Mr. Darwin applies all this in explanation of reflex 

 action. Eeflex action, in truth, shall be to him only 

 inherited habit. Coughing, sneezing, etc., were first 

 voluntary acts ; but they are now involuntary, reflex, 

 simply by habit. Nay, Mr. Darwin is daring enough at 

 least to insinuate that the action of the eye under light 

 may really be of this nature though " a movement 

 which it appears cannot have been at first voluntarily 

 performed, and then fixed by habit ! " But, in fact, 

 it is the very principle of natural selection that an 

 advantage once felt is not left idle, but is put to use ! 

 " Beneficial variations tend to be preserved and in- 

 herited : " and that again is the whole of Mr. Darwin's 

 philosophy ; which sums itself in a phrase, just as 

 Sangradoism did in bleeding and warm water ! As is 

 his usual way, Mr. Darwin in his great candour, of 

 course, is always prompt to call attention to what at any 

 time may appear to be exceptions to " the philosophy 

 of the subject ; " not but what he would be ready to 

 admit that there may be occasions when the exceptions 

 are the rule and the rule the exceptions ! No doubt, 

 also, Mr. Darwin must have taken serious lessons in 

 physiology before trusting himself to give light on these 

 subjects. It is probably only the fault of professional 

 and practical drill if the " vaso-motor system," and the 

 " cerebro-spinal axis," and the " pneumo-gastric nerve," and 

 other technicalities the like, not unfrequently referred 

 to by Mr. Darwin, should appear a little awkward, as 

 though they lay in unaccustomed hands. But then 



