802 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



An anatomist and physiologist competent to judge of the 

 stable grounds of a derivative origin of species — unity of plan, 

 geological epochs, successive species therein, — truly set forth by 

 the great and philosophic naturalist, would have referred to him, 

 bearing calmly and nobly an old age of blindness and poverty, in 

 a more worthy spirit. From one destitute of qualifications for 

 grappling with the difficulties of this profound genetic problem 

 in physiology, silence would have been blameless. Vituperative 

 condemnation by such a one of a given phase or an untenable 

 ground of that problem is of no greater value than his extravagant 

 commendation, with as little capacity for comprehending its weak- 

 ness, of a subsequent attempt towards its solution. 



Some of Lamarck's characteristic and assailable illustrations 

 have indeed been adopted and further developed : — ' Ceux des 

 mammiferes aquatiques qui contracterent l'habitude de ne jamais 

 sortir des eaux, et seulement de venir respirer a leur surface, 

 donnerent probablement lieu aux difterens Cetacees. En efFet, 

 depuis l'enorme quantite de temps que ces animaux vivent dans 

 le sein des mers, ne se servant jamais de leurs pieds posterieurs 

 pour saisir les objets, ces pieds non employes ont tout-a-fait 

 disparu, ainsi que leurs os, et meme le bassin qui leur servoit 

 de soutien et d'attache.' l As a fact, however, so much of the 

 pelvis has been preserved in Cetacea as serves to give origin to 

 certain muscles of the genitals ; and, in the mysticete whale, even 

 a rudiment of the attached limb remains (vol. ii. fig. 159, 63-66). 

 But besides the influence of habitual sojourn in water, Mr. Darwin 

 adds another consideration to account for the enormous head in 

 Cetacea : — ' In North America the black-bear was seen by Hearne 

 swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, almost 

 like a whale, insects in the water. 2 I see no difficulty in a 

 race of bears being rendered by Natural Selection, more and 

 more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger 

 mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale.' 3 



The idea which Mr. Darwin persuades himself that he originated 

 in addition to Lamarck's ' influence des circonstances sur les ac- 

 tions et les habitudes des animaux et de celle des actions et 

 des habitudes de ces corps vivans, comme causes qui modi- 

 fient leur organisation et leurs parties ' is most intelligibly 

 illustrated in the Paper in which he first communicated his views 

 to the Linneean Society. It is by ' an imaginary example from 

 changes in progress on an island ' : — f Let the organisation of a 



1 ccxcvin". ii. p. 461. 2 ccxiii". p. 184, Ed. 1. 



3 This conclusion of the passage is omitted in later editions. 



