Correlation and Application of Statistics to Problems of Heredity 123 



Sir Edward Fry replied in Nature, March 5, 1903 (Vol. lxvii, p. 414), 

 and falls at once into the fallacy of supposing that because variation in 

 group A is continuous, it can only approach group B by converting minute 

 points of likeness in the midst of unlikeness into such a preponderance of 

 likeness as to produce deception. He holds, as so many others have held, that 

 the theory of the accumulation of minute variations fails to account for the 

 facts of mimetism. The error lies in supposing that because the organ varies 

 "continuously," therefore evolution by natural selection involves a gradual 

 accumulation of minute variations in a given direction. Let us suppose the 

 edible group A to enter a new environment, where the protected group B 

 exists, and that a small percentage of A differing widely from type has 

 a sufficient resemblance to B to escape destruction at any rate to some 

 smaller degree than its brethren. The bulk of A will be rapidly destroyed, 

 but the widely divergent section will be, as it were, isolated by the 

 destruction of their fellows, they will inbreed, and the tendency will be, 

 according to the heredity theory of progressive evolution (see our p. 58), 

 for the protecting character to continually increase in intensity, until in a 

 larger and larger percentage it succeeds in deceiving its foes. Sir Edward 

 Fry's appeal to the interspace that separates "the first minute change that 

 deceives no one to the point of first deception," in which interspace he holds 

 natural selection cannot operate, is clear evidence to my mind that he did 

 not know how wide is the range of variation in nearly all organs of all 

 organisms. Natural selection is not forced to choose an individual differing 

 by a minute amount from the type. To hold this view is to think only 

 in terms of the type, and not in terms of the whole population. 



Some further communications very typical of Galton may be noted here. 



He was far too human not to appreciate what the mass of men found of 

 interest, and among other gatherings, he enjoyed great race meetings. 

 Speaking of the Derby he writes in his Memories (p. 179) : 



" For my own part, I especially enjoy the start of the horses, for their coats shine so brightly 

 in the sunshine, the jockeys are so sharp and ready, and the delays due to false starts give 

 opportunities of seeing them well. I don't care much for its conclusion ; but I used often after 

 seeing the start to run to the top of the rising ground between the starting point and the stand, 

 and sometimes got a good opera-glass view of much of the finish." 



That Galton frequently went to the Derby is clear, and two instances 

 deserve notice as characteristic of the man. On one of these occasions he 

 persuaded Herbert Spencer and an Oxford clerical don to accompany him. 

 We can imagine how Galton would enjoy this incongruous party who, how- 

 ever, he tells us, enjoyed each other's society. "All went off quite well, 

 except that Spencer would not be roused to enthusiasm by the races. He 

 said that the crowd of men on the grass looked disagreeable, like flies on a 

 plate ; also that the whole event was just what he had imagined the Derby 

 to be." 



Nevertheless Spencer was sufficiently fascinated to join Galton's Derby 

 party again. We have unfortunately not the don's impressions of the 

 philosopher, the statistician or the races ! On another occasion Galton found 



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