54 THE THEORY OF CHANGE OF FUNCTION 



met with general acceptance ; to consider one of the 

 numerous difficulties in the way of accepting the 

 theory of Natural Selection, difficulties pointed out 

 by none so clearly as Mr. Darwin himself. 



The second circumstance to which I have 

 alluded as influencing my choice was the accidental 

 fact that some work on which I happened to 

 be engaged some little time ago brought me into 

 very violent, and for the time very embarrasing 

 contact with one of these said difficulties, and thus 

 compelled me to take its bearings and measurements 

 very accurately in order to discover in what way it 

 might most conveniently be circumvented or sur- 

 mounted, or, if possible, removed altogether. 



I purpose then asking your attention to one of 

 the more serious of the many alleged difficulties in 

 accepting the doctrine of Natural Selection and to 

 a brief consideration of the means proposed for 

 removing that difficulty. Let me first attempt to 

 define clearly the nature of this obstacle. In the 

 higher animals we meet with a great number of 

 very complex organs, each with very definite func- 

 tions, such as the eye, the ear, and the hand. Now, 

 according to the Darwinian theory, the mode in 

 which such organs have attained their present com- 

 plexity and perfection is as follows : 



Once upon a time the ancestors of these animals 

 possessed eyes less perfect and less complex than 

 those they have at present. Now no two animals 

 of the same species have eyes absolutely identical 

 with one another ; slight differences always occur, 

 and of these slight differences it must happen that 



