i 9 o A REMARKABLE ANTICIPATION OF 



'a particular relation to the localities in which they are 

 placed ' ; the change of a thick fleece into a thin coat 

 when certain breeds of sheep are transported to the 

 tropics. ' On considering these and analogous phaeno- 

 mena, we can scarcely avoid concluding that the variation 

 of animals proceeds according to certain laws, by which 

 the structure is adapted to the necessity of local circum- 

 stances.' 



This statement looks at first sight very much like 

 Natural Selection. It is clear, however, that the writer 

 held a view similar to that which has been termed ' self- 

 adaptation' by some modern writers, viz., that external 

 influences act on the organism in such a manner as to 

 evoke directly a favourable response. 



Examples of similar adaptation are then found among 

 the races of man. The skin of black races is considered 

 to be a protection against the effect of heat ; the native 

 African races can multiply in localities where a white 

 population cannot maintain its numbers, while negroes 

 are unable to establish themselves in northern latitudes. 

 From these and many other instances, it appears that ' in 

 mankind, as in some other races, particular varieties are 

 adapted by constitution and physical peculiarities to 

 particular local situations '. 



The Section finally concludes with the following para- 

 graph : ' These remarks, if they are well founded, serve 

 to illustrate the doctrine of variation, or deviation, in 

 the races of animals in general, and they seem to lead 

 us to the conclusion, that this is not merely an accidental 

 phenomenon, but a part of the provision of nature for 

 furnishing to each region an appropriate stock of inhabi- 

 tants, or for modifying the structure and constitution of 

 species, in such a way as to produce races fitted for each 

 mode and condition of existence. A great part of this 

 plan of local adaptation appears to have been accom- 

 plished by the original modification of a genus into a 

 variety of species. It has been further continued, and 

 the same end promoted, by the ramification of a species 

 into several varieties.' 



The seventh and last Section (p. 575) of this part of 



