98 LIFE OF 



Dallas. A new chapter was inserted after the sixth, and 

 entitled "Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of 

 Natural Selection." It was partly derived from modified 

 portions of chapter iv. of former editions, but the latter 

 and larger part was new, and relates chiefly to the 

 supposed incompetency of natural selection to account 

 for the very early stages of useful structures. Numerous 

 cases, such as the development of the giraffe's neck, 

 the baleen of the whale, the mammary glands, &c., are 

 admirably discussed. Causes preventing the acquisition, 

 through natural selection, of useful structures in many 

 cases are dealt with, and reasons given for disbelieving in 

 great and sudden modifications. In the concluding 

 chapter Darwin further admits that he had formerly 

 underrated the frequency and importance of use and 

 disuse of parts, of the direct action of external conditions, 

 and of variations which seem to us, in our ignorance, to 

 arise spontaneously. He alludes to misrepresentations 

 of his views, and calls attention to the fact that, in the 

 first edition, at the close of the introduction, he stated 

 his conviction that natural selection had been the main, 

 but not the exclusive means of modification. " This has 

 been of no avail. Great is the power of steady mis- 

 representation ; but the history of science shows that, 

 fortunately, this power does not long endure." This is 

 Darwin's almost sole allusion in his works to the persistence 

 with which views not his had been attributed to him, or he 

 had been calumniated for views he did hold. But in his 

 own lifetime nay, within fifteen years he witnessed a 

 sufficiently satisfying revolution. " I formerly spoke to very 

 many naturalists on the subject of evolution, and never 



