r44 



NATURE 



\jfune 12, 1S79 



the main but not the exclusive means of modification," he 

 must mean "the conditions of existence are the main," 

 &c., &c. ; therefore he really agrees with Lamarck, whose 

 opinions he has called " erroneous ! " Again, because Mr. 

 Darwin has once used the term nature, metaphorically, 

 for natural selection, our author seizes hold of it for a 

 little ridicule, thus : " When, therefore, Mr. Darwin says 

 that natural selection is the most important, but not the 

 exclusive means whereby any modification has been 

 effected, he is really saying that nature is the most im- 

 portant means of modification — which is only another way 

 of telling us that variation causes variations, and is all 

 very true as far as it goes." In the same style the use of 

 the term " by jneans of natural selection " is criticised, 

 and the use of " natural selection " at all, when " survival 

 of the fittest " is admitted to be a more accurate term ; 

 and Mr. Butler seems to think that if the latter term were 

 always used, a great deal of the force of Mr. Darwin's 

 arguments would be lost. I venture to assert, however, 

 that every argument can be stated with equal accuracy 

 and effect, using only " survival of the fittest ; " but there 

 is this great advantage in using the term " natural selec- 

 tion," that it keeps before the mind the striking analogy 

 and almost identity between the action of man and of 

 nature in modifying species, an identity that was never 

 seen by any of the older writers, but which was first 

 clearly apprehended by Mr. Patrick Matthew, and first 

 fully worked out by Mr. Darwin himself. 



In the last chapter Mr. Butler takes the celebrated case 

 of the Madeira wingless beetles to test the respective 

 theories of Lamarck and Charles Darwin, and he could 

 hardly have made a more unfortunate choice. According 

 to Lamarck, he says, when a beetle found the wind taking 

 it in a wrong direction, which it kneiu would be fatal to it, 

 it ceased flying, and thus, by long-continued disuse, 

 gradually lost its wings. Here we have the assumption 

 that such insects as beetles know beforehand that if blown 

 out to sea they will be drowned, an assumption for which 

 not one particle of evidence is adduced, while, 'as every 

 entomologist knows, pages might be filled with facts 

 proving that insects of various orders do not possess any 

 knowledge of the kind, but year after year go recklessly 

 to their death by myriads. 



Hardly less weak than this statement of the Lamarckian 

 theory is the objection to that of Mr. Darwin, which is as 

 follows : — " For Mr. Darwin cannot mean that the fact of 

 some beetles being blown out to sea is the most important 

 means whereby other beetles come to have smaller 

 wings — that the Madeira beetles, in fact, come to have 

 smaller wings, mainly because their large-winged uncles 

 and aunts go away." Though Mr. Butler has tried to 

 put this so as to look like an absurdity, it is strange that 

 he cannot see that it contains an important truth. If the 

 "large-winged" beetles go away, the small-winged re- 

 mains to breed, and each succeeding generation will 

 have, on the average, smaller wings than the last ; and if, 

 so long as any fly at all, the larger-winged continue to " go 

 away," at last none will fly, and then, the wings being 

 unused, will become abortive and rudimentary. As a 

 crucial case, and to compare the power of the two theories 

 as agents of change, let us suppose them both applied to 

 the human inhabitants of Britain. First we will suppose 

 all the men and women above the average height to 



go away year by year to Australia or elsewhere, while 

 those under the average height remained. Does Mr. 

 Butler doubt that at the end of, say, ten generations, the 

 average height of English men and women would have 

 been considerably reduced ? This would be selection 

 pure and simple. Now for the Lamarckian theory. Let 

 all the people be taught (and believe) that to be short is 

 to be beautiful and virtuous, and let all doors and all 

 public vehicles be made low to suit short people and 

 inconvenience tall ones, and moreover, let short people 

 alone be eligible for a number of posts of honour and 

 dignity, there would thus be created a general desire to 

 be short oneself and to have short children, and the 

 Lamarckian principle would be brought fairly into play. 

 Now supposing that no artificial selection of any kind was 

 practised, and that, owing to the prevalence of high 

 moral principle, the health, lives, and affections of tall 

 people were valued and cared for as much as those of 

 their more favoured short fellow-countrymen, does Mr. 

 Butler seriously maintain that at the end of ten genera- 

 tions any perceptible effect would be produced on the 

 average height of the people ; or that anything like the 

 same amount of effect would be produced as by the other 

 experiment ? But if not, then " selection," whether natural 

 or artificial, is the main cause or means of modification ; 

 the plain reason being that it accumulates differences 

 which actually exist, whereas, by the other mode, you 

 must produce an increase or diminution of these differ- 

 ences by causes which have not been proved to act at all, 

 and which, even if they do produce any effect, can only 

 do so with extreme slowness. 



In conclusion, then, we may admit the possibility that 

 the causes of variation adduced by Lamarck, as well as 

 those so well set forth by Mr. Butler in his " Life and 

 Habit," are real causes ; we may further admit that some 

 or all of these causes are essential to the origin and deve- 

 lopment of the more important organs of animals, and 

 that they constitute the chief supplementary agencies the 

 existence of which Mr. Darwin himself recognises ; but, 

 even admitting all this, we still maintain that they would 

 be all powerless to effect great or permanent modifications 

 without the accumulating action of natural selection, 

 which may therefore be truly described as the " means" 

 by which alone the " origin of species" has been actually 

 brought about. Alfred R. Wallace 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Elementary Arithmetic and How to Teach It. By George 

 Ricks, B.Sc. (London: Isbister, 1879.) 



Most school-books, especially those of an elementary 

 character, are mere poison, and very disagreeable poison 

 too. But Mr. Ricks has supplied us in this volume with 

 really healthy food. We heartily recommend it to all 

 young teachers, and believe, moreover, that many who 

 deem themselves experienced may obtain from it several 

 useful hints. In Part I. the teacher of an infant school is 

 shown how to proceed with his pupils; in Parts II. and 

 III. similar information is afforded to the teacher in a 

 junior school ; Parts IV. and V. relate to senior schools ; 

 Part VI. is devoted to advanced scholars. We have 

 discovered nothing very remarkable in the latter half of 

 the book ; indeed, Mr. Ricks seems to get a little beyond 

 himself as soon as he advances from the juniors to the 

 seniors. This, however, is a matter of small consequence. 



