12 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, i 



have denied. I found them again at once in both Mr. and Mrs. 

 Vulpes. You spot them immediately by the pectineus which is 

 attached to them. 



The dog-fox's caecum is so different from the vixen's that 

 Gray would have made distinct genera of them. Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T H HUXLEY. 



4 MARYBOROUGH PLACE, N.W., May 2, 1880. 



MY DEAR FAYRER I am greatly obliged for the skulls, and I 

 hope you will offer my best thanks to your son for the trouble 

 he has taken in getting them. 



The " fox " is especially interesting because it is not a fox, 

 by any manner of means, but a big jackal with some interesting 

 points of approximation towards the cuons. 



I do not see any locality given along with the specimens. 

 Can you supply it? 



I have got together some very curious evidence of the 

 wider range of variability of the Indian jackal, and the " fox" 

 which your son has sent is the most extreme form in one direc- 

 tion I have met with. 



I wish I could get some examples from the Bombay and 

 Madras Presidencies and from Ceylon, as well as from Central 

 India. Almost all I have seen yet are from Bengal. Ever 

 yours very faithfully, T R HuXLEY . 



Between the two lectures on the Dog, mentioned above, 

 on April 9, Huxley delivered a Friday evening discourse, at 

 the same place, " On the Coming of Age of the Origin of 

 Species' 1 (Coll. Ess. ii. 227). Reviewing the history of the 

 theory of evolution in the twenty-one years that had elapsed 

 since the Origin of Species first saw the light in 1859, ne 

 did not merely dwell on the immense influence the " Origin ' 

 had exercised upon every field of biological inquiry. ' Mere 

 insanities and inanities have before now swollen to porten- 

 tous size in the course of twenty years." ' History warns 

 us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as 

 heresies, and to end as superstitions." There was actual 

 danger lest a new generation should " accept the main doc- 

 trines of the Origin of Species with as little reflection, and 

 it may be with as little justification, as so many of our con- 

 temporaries, years ago, rejected them." 



