Alfred Russel Wallace 



ever read it in that form, and I am sure your own answer 

 to Mivart's arguments will be so much more clear and to the 

 point, that the other will be unnecessary. You might extract 

 certain portions in your own chapter, such as the very in- 

 genious suggestion as to the possible origin of mammary 

 glands, as well as the possible use of the rattle of the rattle- 

 snake, etc. 



I cannot see the force of Mivart's objection to the theory 

 of production of the long neck of the giraffe (suggested in my 

 first Essay), and which C. Wright seems to admit, while his 

 '^ watch-tower " theory seems to me more difficult and un- 

 likely as a means of origin. The argument, " Why haven't 

 other allied animals been modified in the same w^ay? " seems 

 to me the weakest of the weak. I must say also I do not 

 see any great reason to complain of the '^ words'' left out 

 by Mivart, as they do not seem to me materially to affect the 

 meaning. Your expression, *^ and tends to depart in a slight 

 degree," I think hardly grammatical ; a tendency to depart 

 cannot very well be said to be in a slight degree ; a departure 

 can, but a tendency must be either a slight tendency or a 

 strong tendency; the degree to which the departure may 

 reach must depend on favourable or unfavourable causes in 

 addition to the tendency itself. Mivart's words, ^^ and 

 tending to depart from the parental type," seem to me 

 quite unobjectionable as a paraphrase of yours, because the 

 *^ tending " is kept in; and your own view undoubtedly is 

 that the tendency may lead to an ultimate departure to any 

 extent. Mivart's error is to suppose that your w^ords favour 

 the view of sudden departures, and I do not see that the 

 expression he uses really favours his view a bit more than 

 if he had quoted your exact words. The expression of yours 

 he relies upon is evidently ^' the whole organism seeming 

 to have become plastic," and he argues, no doubt errone- 

 ously, that having so become '' plastic," any amount or 



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