1 88 THE METHOD OF DARWIW. 



phenomena of muscle in general, but a thorough 

 investigation of the normal electrical phenom- 

 ena of fish-muscle, and of the efficacy of slight 

 shocks in water; the habits and environments 

 of the electric fishes, their enemies and their 

 prey, need to be carefully studied. When the 

 investigation is set going on a large enough 

 scale, and along all the lines on which there 

 is at present little more than dense ignorance, 

 there will be in the minds of those who have 

 attended closely to the principal biological 

 investigations of recent years no doubt about 

 the outcome. The logical processes involved 

 in the solution of such problems under the 

 influence of a general theory are practically the 

 same, whether the work is done by one man or 

 by a number of men who attack the problems 

 simultaneously or in succession. 



The unverified deduction in the following 

 example is interesting on several accounts, 

 (i) The prediction involved what seemed to 

 many entomologists an improbability. (2) The 

 prediction has not been verified, but the im- 

 probability has been removed. (3) It has been 

 often quoted even by naturalists as a case of 

 verified prediction. Angrczcum scsquipedale, 

 an orchid native to Madagascar, has a long 

 whip-like nectary. On several flowers -Darwin 



