IV.] MINUTE MODIFICATIONS. 117 



begotten species were found, the fact of its discovery 

 would tell nothing about its origin. Naturalists would 

 register it as a very rare species, having been only once 

 met with, but they would have no means of knowing 

 whether it were the first or the last of its race." 



To this Mr. Wallace has replied (in his review, in Nature^ 

 of Mr. Murphy's work), by objecting that sudden changes 

 could very rarely be useful, because each kind of animal 

 is a nicely balanced and adjusted whole, any one sudden 

 modification of which would in most cases be hurtful 

 unless accompanied by other simultaneous and harmonious 

 modifications. If, however, it is not unlikely that there is 

 an innate tendency to deviate at certain times, and under 

 certain conditions, it is not more unlikely that that innate 

 tendency should be an harmonious one, calculated to 

 simultaneously adjust the various parts of the organism 

 to their new relations. The objection as to the sudden 

 abortion of rudimentary organs may be similarly met. 



Professor Huxley seems now disposed to accept the, at 

 least occasional, intervention of sudden and considerable 

 variations. In his review of Professor Kolliker's criticisms, 2 

 he himself says, 3 "We greatly suspect that she" (i.e. Nature) 

 "does make considerable jumps in the way of variation 

 now and then, and that these saltations give rise to some 

 of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of known 

 forms." 



Iii addition to the instances brought forward in the 

 second chapter against the minute action of "Natural 

 Selection," may be mentioned such structures as the 



1 See Dec. 2, 1869, vol. i. p. 132. 



2 4 ' Uber die Darwin' sclie Schopi'ungstheorie :" ein Vortrag, von Kolliker ; 

 Leipzig, 1864. 3 See "Lay Sermons," p. 342. 



