94 MAN [Chap. VIII 



Letter 458 complete oversight with respect to the subject which you 

 discuss. I am the more surprised at this, as I remember 

 reflecting on some points which ought to have led me to 

 your conclusion. By an odd chance I received the day 

 before yesterday a letter from Mr. Lowne 1 (author of an 

 excellent book on the anatomy of the Blow-fly) with a 

 discussion very nearly to the same effect as yours. His 

 conclusions were drawn from studying male insects with 

 great horns, mandibles, etc. He informs me that his paper 

 on this subject will soon be published in the Transact. 

 Entomolog. Society? I am inclined to look at your and 

 Mr. Lowne's view as specially valuable from probably throw- 

 ing light on the greater variability of male than female 

 animals, which manifestly has much bearing on sexual 

 selection. I will keep your remarks in mind whenever a 

 new edition of my book is demanded. 



Letter 459 To George Fraser. 



The following letter refers to two letters to Mr. Darwin, in which Mr. 

 Fraser pointed out that illustrations of the theory of Sexual Selection 

 might be found amongst British butterflies and moths. Mr. Fraser, in 

 explanation of the letters, writes : " As an altogether unknown and far 

 from experienced naturalist, I feared to send my letters for publication 

 without, in the first place, obtaining Mr. Darwin's approval." The 

 information was published in Nature, Vol. III., April 20th, 1871, p. 489. 

 The article was referred to in the second edition of the Descent of Man 

 (1874), pp. 312, 316, 319. Mr. Fraser adds : " This is only another illus- 

 tration of Mr. Darwin's great conscientiousness in acknowledging sug- 

 gestions received by him from the most humble sources." (Letter from 

 Mr. Fraser to F. Darwin, March 21, 1888.) 



Down. April 14th [1871]. 



I am very much obliged for your letter and the interesting 

 facts which it contains, and which are new to me. But I am 

 at present so much engaged with other subjects that I cannot 



1 The Anatomy and Physiology of the Blow-Fly {Musca vomitaria L.), 

 by B. T. Lowne. London, 1870. 



2 " Observations on Immature Sexuality and Alternate Generation in 

 Insects." By B. T. Lowne. Trans. Entomol. Soc, 1871 [Read March 6th, 

 1871]. "I believe that certain cutaneous appendages, as the gigantic 

 mandibles and thoracic horns of many males, are complemental to the 

 sexual organs ; that, in point of fact, they are produced by the excess 

 of nutriment in the male, which in the female would go to form the 

 generative organs and ova" (Joe. cit., p. 197). 



