474 ON SPECIES 



to species-mongers, and it is cast in your teeth every 

 moment, as an argument for making every slight difference, 

 if only accompanied with geographical segregation, of specific 

 value. 



Nevertheless I am quite aware that such species must 

 exist ; I do not deny, nor would I blink, the evidence in 

 favour of it, nor that it is the gravest of all objections to the 

 pronouncement upon species in our present state of know- 

 ledge. I therefore admit its application to practice only in 

 exceptional cases. The long and short of it is, that if you 

 admit two centres you may as well admit all Agassiz, you 

 cannot draw the line, and Geographical distribution is hence 

 a vain study, the connection of life with the revolutions of 

 our globe and with all the physics of nature is naught, and 

 nothing can come of its pursuit but the temporary gratifica- 

 tion of taste and ingenuity. 



I am amused by fancying you * fall into the snare you lay 

 for another ' — the following, which shews how all these argu- 

 ments cut two ways. You say generic resemblance is a strong 

 point, and not enough dwelt upon. I grant it fully. I 

 suppose I thought it too hackneyed, though it is far from 

 being so in a philosophical point of view. But you go on with 

 consummate sangfroid to tell me of Dorking fowls and Manx 

 cats, starting off at a tangent without rhyme or reason ! 

 This I grant too, but let me ask you what would be done by 

 Gould or Agassiz with a Dorking fowl, if it were shot and 

 skinned in the Andamans and brought from thence as its 

 only habitat ? Not only would a new genus be made of it, 

 but its toes would lead to a deal of pen, ink and paper, analo- 

 gies, affinities, relations, &c., &c., &c. Ditto with the Manx 

 cat, an osteological specific character would be found for it 

 as easily as Cuvier found one for the Falkland Islands rabbit, 

 which had not been 30 years out from Europe ! Oh dear, oh 

 dear, my mind is not fully, faithfully, implicitly given to 

 species as created entities ah origine, but it is to the im- 

 perative necessity of sticking to one side or the other and, 

 without being bound by it, referring, arranging, and reasoning 

 by it. I take that side which, though apparently the most 

 narrow and prejudiced, is the only one which really keeps 

 the mind open to investigate, which co-ordinates all the 

 elements of geography, system and physiology, and which 



