1 84 MISCELLANEA. [1874. 



this is in any degree common. I have expressly said that a 

 bank at the proper depth would give rise to an atoll, which 

 could not be distinguished from one formed during subsidence. 

 I can, however, hardly believe in the former presence of as 

 many banks (there having been no subsidence) as there are 

 atolls in the great oceans, within a reasonable depth, on which 

 minute oceanic organisms could have accumulated to the thick- 

 ness of many hundred feet. . . . Pray forgive me for troubling 

 you at such length, but it has occurred [to me] that you 

 might be disposed to give, after your wide experience, your 

 judgment If I am wrong, the sooner I am knocked on the 

 head and annihilated so much the better. It still seems to 

 me a marvellous thing that there should not have been much, 

 and long continued, subsidence in the beds of the great 

 oceans. I wish that some doubly rich millionaire would take 

 it into his head to have borings made in some of the Pacific 

 and Indian atolls, and bring home cores for slicing from a 

 depth of 500 or 600 feet. . . . 



[The second edition of the ' Descent of Man ' was published 

 in the autumn of 1874. Some severe remarks on the 

 "monistic hypothesis" appeared in the July* number of 

 the ' Quarterly Review ' (p. 45). The reviewer expresses his 

 astonishment at the ignorance of certain elementary dis- 

 tinctions and principles (e.g. with regard to the verbum 

 mentale) exhibited, among others, by Mr. Darwin, who " does 

 not exhibit the faintest indication of having grasped them, 

 yet a clear perception of them, and a direct and detailed 

 examination of his facts with regard to them, was a sine qua 

 non for attempting, with a chance of success, the solution of 

 the mystery as to the descent of man." 



Some further criticisms of a later date may be here alluded 

 to. In the 'Academy,' 1876 (pp. 562, 587), appeared a review 

 of Mr. Mivart's ' Lessons from Nature,' by Mr. Wallace, 



* The review necessarily deals with the first edition of the ' Descent 

 of Man.' 



