364 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



in the size, form, colour, and structure of the various parts 

 and organs. 



Other matters of importance in Mr. Bateson's work, 

 together with some theories recently advanced by Mr. 

 Francis Galton, will now be discussed. 



Some Minor Objections to the Darwinian Theory. 



We will now deal with some of the minor objections to 

 the views of most Darwinians which are to be found in 

 Mr. Bateson's lengthy Introduction ; after which the 

 validity of Mr. Francis Galton's doctrine, as to positions 

 of organic stability (also held by Mr. Bateson), will be 

 considered. And first, we note that he uses the usual 

 misleading terms, " minute," " minimal," '' imperceptible," 

 and "insensible" (p. 15) as applied to the individual 

 variations on which Darwin relied, although he has him- 

 self given figures of beetles and earwigs showing that such 

 variations are enormous — greater, indeed, than in the 

 illustrative cases I have given in my Darwinism} 



A strong attack is made on the theory of the utility of 

 specific characters. It is admitted that an enormous 

 amount of evidence has been collected, and that " the 

 functions of many problematical organs have been con- 

 jectured, in some cases perhaps rightly" — yet he adds, 

 " whole groups of common phenomena are still almost 

 untouched even by conjecture." He tells us that "many 

 suggestions have been made as to the benefits which 

 edible moths may derive from their protective colouration; 

 and as to the reasons why unpalatable butterflies in 

 general are brightly coloured" (p. II) — but neither here 

 nor elsewhere is any hint given that more than " sug- 

 gestions " have been advanced. Considering that this is 

 the one branch of the subject in which natural selection 

 has been shown to be an actual working reality in nature 

 by the experiments of Jenner Weir, Butler, Stainton, and 

 Belt, the observations of Bates and Fritz Mtiller, and 

 especially by the experimental investigations of Professor 



^ See Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1892 (p. 59-23), in a paper 

 by W. Bateson and H, H. Brindley. 



