1880 COMING OF AGE OF THE 'ORIGIN' 277 



4 MARYBOROUGH PLACE, N.W., 

 May 2, 1880. 



MY DEAR FAYREE I am greatly obliged for the 

 skulls, and I hope you will offer my best thanks to your 

 son for the trouble he has taken in getting them. 



The " fox " is especially interesting because it is not a 

 fox, by any manner of means, but a big jackal with some 

 interesting points of approximation towards the cuons. 



I do not see any locality given along with the speci- 

 mens. Can you supply it ? 



I have got together some very curious evidence of the 

 wider range of variability of the Indian jackal, and the 

 " fox " which your son has sent is the most extreme form 

 in one direction I have met with. 



I wish I could get some examples from the Bombay 

 and Madras Presidencies and from Ceylon, as well as from 

 Central India. Almost all I have seen yet are from 

 Bengal. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



Between the two lectures on the Dog, mentioned 

 above, on April 9, Huxley delivered a Friday evening 

 discourse, at the same place, " On the Coming of Age 

 of the Origin of Species" (Col Ess. ii 227). Ee- 

 viewing the history of the theory of evolution in the 

 twenty-one years that had elapsed since the Origin of 

 Species first saw the light in 1859, he did not merely 

 dwell on the immense influence the "Origin" had 

 exercised upon every field of biological inquiry. 

 "Mere insanities and inanities have before now swollen 

 to portentous size in the course of twenty years." 

 " History warns us that it is the customary fate of 

 new truths to begin as heresies, and to end as super- 





