272 APPENDIX D 



supporter of de Vries in this country statements 

 accepted and widely circulated by others that it 

 appeared expedient to produce even redundant 

 proof that the Dutch botanist has been uninten- 

 tionally but fundamentally misrepresented in a 

 matter of supreme importance. 



In conclusion I think it may be convenient to 

 sum up briefly a few opinions that have been 

 expressed during the past fifty years as to the 

 variations which form the steps of evolutionary 

 progress. Such a short statement, which I will 

 endeavour to express as clearly as possible, may 

 do something to bring within reasonable limits 

 those unduly exaggerated estimates of recent 

 achievement which tend in the long run to 

 diminish rather than to exalt the fame of an 

 investigator. 



CHARLES DARWIN. It has been shown on 

 many pages of this book that Darwin recognized 

 large variations transitional into individual dif- 

 ferences, but that, with A. K. Wallace, he 

 believed the onward steps of evolution were 

 supplied by the latter and not by the former. 1 

 He admitted that advance might be arrested by 



1 The following passage is quoted from p. 45 of the 1st Edition 

 of the Origin : ' Again, we have many slight differences which may 

 be called individual differences, such as are known frequently to 

 appear in the offspring from the same parents, or which may be 

 presumed to have thus arisen, . . . ' ' These individual differences 

 are highly important for us, as they afford materials for natural 

 selection to accumulate, in the same manner as man can ac- 

 cumulate in any given direction individual differences in his 

 domesticated productions. 1 



