chapter III 



How I came to write "Evolution, Old and New" — Mr. Darwin's 

 "brief but imperfect" sketch of the opinions of the writers 

 on evolution who had preceded him — The reception which 

 " Evolution, Old and New," met with. 



THOUGH my book was out in 1877, it was not till 

 January 1878 that I took an opportunity of looking up 

 Professor Ray Lankester's account of Professor Hering's 

 lecture. I can hardly say how relieved I was to find that it 

 sprung no mine upon me, but that, so far as I could 

 gather, Professor Hering and I had come to pretty much the 

 same conclusion. I had already found the passage in Dr. 

 Erasmus Darwin which I quoted in " Evolution, Old and 

 New," but may perhaps as well repeat it here. It runs — 



" Owing to the imperfection of language, the offspring 

 is termed a new animal ; but is, in truth, a branch or elonga- 

 tion of the parent, since a part of the embryon animal is or 

 was a part of the parent, and, therefore, in strict language, 

 cannot be said to be entirely new at the time of its production, 

 and, therefore, it may retain some of the habits of the parent 

 system." 1 



When, then, the AthencBiim reviewed " Life and Habit " 

 (January 26, 1878), I took the opportunity to write to that 

 paper, calling attention to Professor Hering's lecture, and 

 also to the passage just quoted from Dr. Erasmus Darwin. 

 The editor kindly inserted my letter in his issue of February 

 9, 1878. I felt that I had now done all in the way of 

 acknowledgment to Professor tiering which it was, for the 

 time, in my power to do. 



I again took up Mr. Darwin's " Origin of vSpecies," this 



^ Zoonomia, vol. i. p. 484; Evolution, Old and New, p. 214. 



26 



