38 CHARLES DARWIN. 



do not know whether this view is still entertained by entomo- 

 logists ; if so, I feel JDOund to express my dissent. It has been 

 pointed out that the great theorisers have all done such work 

 that Darwin monographed the Cirripedia, and Huxley the 

 oceanic Hydrozoa, and it has been said that Wallace's and 

 Bates's contributions in this field have been their biological 

 salvation. I yield to nobody in my recognition of the value 

 and importance of taxonomic work, but the possibilities of 

 biological investigation have developed to such an extent since 

 Darwin's time that I do not think this position can any 

 longer be seriously maintained. It must be borne in mind 

 that the illustrious author of the 'Origin of Species' had 

 none of the opportunities for systematic training in biology 

 which any student can now avail himself of. To him the 

 monographing of the Cirripedia was, as Huxley states in a 

 communication to Francis Darwin, 'a piece of critical self- 

 discipline,' and there can be no reasonable doubt that this 

 value of systematic work will be generally conceded. That 

 this kind of work gives the sole right to speculate at the 

 present time is, however, quite another point." 



Meldola then goes on to argue that the systematic 

 work of those who know nothing of the living state 

 of the species they are describing does not specially 

 fit them for theorising, and he concludes by quoting 

 the following passage from a letter recently received 

 from A. R Wallace : 



" I do not think species-describing is of any special use to 

 the philosophical generaliser, but I do think the collecting, 

 naming, and classifying some extensive group of organisms is 

 of great use, is, in fact, almost essential to any thorough grasp 

 of the whole subject of the evolution of species through 

 variation and natural selection. I had described nothing when 

 I wrote my papers on variation, etc. (except a few fishes and 

 palms from the Amazon), but I had collected and made out 

 species very largely and had seen to some extent how curiously 

 useful and protective their forms and colours often were, and 

 all this was of great use to me." 



