The Making of Species 



"After much consideration, and with no bias 

 against Mr Darwin's views," wrote Huxley to 

 the Westminster Review in 1860, "it is our clear 

 conviction that, as the evidence now stands, it is 

 not absolutely proven that a group of animals 

 having all the characters exhibited by species in 

 nature, has ever been originated by selection, 

 whether natural or artificial. Groups having the 

 morphological nature of species, distinct and per- 

 manent races, in fact, have been so produced 

 over and over again ; but there is no positive 

 evidence at present that any group of animals 

 has, by variation and selective breeding, given 

 rise to another group which was in the least 

 degree infertile with the first. Mr Darwin is 

 perfectly aware of this weak point, and brings 

 forward a multitude of ingenious and important 

 arguments to diminish the force of the objection. 

 We admit the value of these arguments to the 

 fullest extent; nay, we will go so far as to express 

 our belief that experiments, conducted by a skil- 

 ful physiologist, would very probably obtain the 

 desired production of mutually more or less in- 

 fertile breeds from a common stock in a com- 

 paratively few years; but still, as the case stands 

 at present, this little 'rift within the lute' is not 

 to be disguised or overlooked." 



Similarly Wallace writes, at the beginning of 

 chapter vii. of his Darwinism : " One of the 

 greatest, or perhaps we may say the greatest, of 



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