44 FIFTY YEARS OF DARWINISM 



on ' sudden jumps ' or ' monstrosities ', as well as 

 on ' large ', ' extreme ', and ' great and sudden 

 variations' (see Appendix B, p. 254). Out of 

 many examples I select one more because of its 

 peculiar interest. 



The Duke of Argyll, in his address to the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, Dec. 5, 1864, used 

 the following words : ' Strictly speaking, there- 

 fore, Mr. Darwin's theory is not a theory of the 

 Origin of Species at all, but only a theory on the 

 causes which lead to the relative success and 

 failure of such new forms as may be born into the 

 world.' 1 In a letter to Lyell, Jan. 22, 1865, 

 Darwin wrote concerning this argument : 



' I demur ... to the Duke's expression of "new births". 

 That may be a very good theory, but it is not mine, unless 

 indeed he calls a bird born with a beak T J-gth of an inch 

 longer than usual " a new birth " ; but this is not the sense 

 in which the term would usually be understood. The more 

 I work, the more I feel convinced that it is by the accumu- 

 lation of such extremely slight variations that new species 

 arise.' 2 



We therefore find that when the Duke criti- 

 cized Darwin's theory of Natural Selection as 

 though it had been founded on mutation, the 

 interpretation was repudiated by Darwin himself. 



I desire again to state most emphatically that, 

 during the whole course of his researches and 

 reflections upon evolution, Darwin was thoroughly 



1 Scotsman, Dec. 6, 1864. 



2 Life and Letters, iii. 33. See also Quarterly Revieic. July. 1909, 

 25, 26 ; also 10-12. 



