Fuly 6, 1871] 
NATURE 
181 

so good as to look at p. 111 and p. 148, vol. ii. of my “‘ Varia- 
tion of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” he will find a 
good many facts and a discussion on the fertility and sterility of 
organisms from increased food and other causes. He will see 
my reasons for disagreeing with Mr. Doubleday, whose work I 
carefully read many years ago. 
CHARLES DARWIN 
Down, Beckenham, Kent, July 1 
THE very ingenious manner in which Mr. Howorth first mis- 
represents Darwinism, and then uses an argument which is not 
even founded on his own misrepresentation, but on a quite dis- 
tinct fallacy, may puzzle some of your readers. I therefore ask 
space for a few lines of criticism. 
Mr. Howorth first ‘‘takes it”’ that the struggle for existence 
‘¢ means, in five words, the persistence of the stronger.” This is 
a pure misrepresentation. Darwin says nothing of the kind. 
‘© Strength ” is only ore out of the many and varied powers and 
faculties that lead to sucess in the battle for life. Minute size, 
obscure colours, swiftness, armour, cunning, prolificness, nauseous- 
ness, or bad odour, have any one of them as much right to be 
put forward as the caus: of *‘ persistence.” The error is so gross 
that itseems wonderful that any reader of Darwin could have made 
it, or, having made it, could put it forward deliberately as a fair 
foundatioa for a criticism. He says, moreover, that the theory 
of Natural Selection ‘‘has been expressively epitomised” as 
** the per-istence of the stronger,” ‘‘ the survival of the stronger.” 
By whom? I should like to know. I never saw the terms so ap- 
plied in print by any Darwinian. The most curious and even 
ludicrous thing, howeyer, is that, having thus laid down his pre- 
misses, Mr. Howorth makes no more use of them, but runs off to 
something quite different, namely, that /a¢vess is prejudicial to 
fertility. “‘ Fat hens won’t lay,” ‘‘overgrown melons have few 
seeds,” ‘‘ overfed men have small families,’-—these are the facts 
by which he seeks to prove thit the s¢vozgest will not survive and 
leave offspring! But what does nature tell us? That the 
strongest and most vigorous plants do produce the most flowers 
and seed, not the weak and sickly. That the strongest and most 
healthy and best fed wild animals do propagate more rapidly than 
the s arved and sickly. That the strong and thoroughly well-fed 
backwoodsmen of America increase more rapidly than any half- 
starved race of Indians upon earth. No fact, therefore, has been 
adduced to show that even ‘‘the persistence of the stronger” is 
not true ; although, if this had been done, it would not touch 
Natural Selection, which is the “survival of the fittest.” 
ALFRED R. WALLACE 

Our Natural History Museum 
IN a few days the country will be called upon to vote 30,000/, 
or 40,000/. towards the erection of the new Natural History 
Museum at Kensington. 7,000/. were voted last year for the 
purpose of drawing up estimates and preparing the site, and our 
present one at Bloomsbury has become such a crying evil that we 
can scarcely anticipate a refusal of the grant. 
So liberal a sum being offered at the shrine of Science, the 
* community at large will necessarily expect great things of her, 
and first among all a radical redress of all existing grievances. 
Yet, if rumour whispers true, the prospects of the future are 
scarcely so brilliant or pregnant with promises of better things 
to come as they should be. Plans have been drawn up and 
decided upon, and the chiefs of the present Natural History 
Departments have been subsequently consulted as to the amount 
of space required for the several collections under their charge. 
This is itself a faulty commencement, for the building should 
be constructed for the requirements of the collections, and not 
the collections cut to the size of the building, and, as might have 
been anticipated, such policy already threatens to prove produc- 
tive of disappointment and dissatisfaction. Some departments 
will profit by the change, while others, including the one mostly 
needing an elargement of its borders, will absolutely have less 
than the present amount of space awarded it. We refer to the 
zoological one, whose present overcrowded and semi-arranged 
co dition is a disgrace to he nation. And yet, onthe c mpletion 
or the present plans, this cramming process is threatened to be 
still further carried out, though it is to be hoped the voice of 
opposition and common sense will save us yet from so unfortunate 
a catastrophe. We hear again that no consideration whatever 
has been devoted to the subject of a library for the new building, 


nora single foot of space allotted to the purpose of constructing 
one. Such a blunder as this surpasses the first one. The 
scientific volumes in the present library are in constant requisition 
by the officers of the various departments to assist them in the 
determination and arrangement of the specimens. Many of 
these again are unique or only replaceable at a great cost, and 
the inconvenience and loss of advantages that will arise to the 
official staff on being separated from the collection of works they 
now have access to, cannot be over-estimated. If the Natural 
History collections must be removed, an edifice suitable for their 
thorough utilisation, and replete with every convenience for 
prosecuting scientific research, including efficient laboratories, 
should be erected. 
But to commence at the root of the evil. No progress can be 
expected under present auspices, or so long as the chief adminis- 
tration of the establishment, and the appointment and promotion 
of all officers, is vested in the hands of some fifty or sixty trustees, 
out of whom not more than two can be said to take a direct 
interest in the promotion of Natural Science. Nor, again, so 
long as such little discrimination is exercised in the distribution 
of these officers. Curiosity has prompted inquiries which have 
elicited anything but satisfying discoveries. We find men with 
talents for one branch of natural history stationed in departments 
where their particular talents cannot be utilised ; recent zoolo- 
gists in the geological department, paleontologists in the recent 
botanical one, and men peculiarly gifted for literary pursuits and 
without the slightest taste for scientific research, in the former. 
Taking next the department of Recent Zoology, the inadequacy 
of the present staff and the ill-proportioned attention that is de- 
voted to particular sections, to the entire neglect of the remaining 
ones, are painfully apparent. In the Vertebrate division, 
though abundant room for improvement, there is not so 
much cause for censure; but on descending to the lower and 
far more bulky one of the Invertebrates, what do we find? 
Of astaff of five, two are conchologists, and the remaining three 
entomologists, while the Crustacea, Arachnida, and the whole of 
the old group of the Radiates, including the Echinodermata, 
Molluscoida, Ccelenterata, and Procozoa, are left to shift for 
themselves, and make way for the necessities of the others. 
Have we no men in England capable of superintending the ar- 
rangement of these neglected classes? or is it that the present 
remuneration for scientific work, for all but those highest in 
authority—so slender as to necessitate their utilising every leisure 
hour in eking out other means of subsistence, and taxing their 
brains, to the detriment of the amount of work discharged in 
official hours—deters them from coming forward? At any rate, 
the evil should be attended to, and the present glaring incon- 
gruities abolished. Whether new buildings are erected at Ken- 
sington, or the existing ones enlarged, it is absolutely incumbent 
that the administration shall be thoroughly reorganised. A per- 
manent committee of some dozen eminently scientific men should 
supply the place of the present host of uninterested trustees, and 
the staff of officers should be distributed in accordance with the 
plan adopted in the Paris and various Continental Museums. 
Each zoological section should have its superintendent, with a 
number of assistants varying according to its requirements, 
while one governing mind should assume the responsibility and 
direct the machinery of the whole ; and until such reformation is 
accomplished, there is no hope of any practical improvements, 
We do not see why the two large wings of the present establish- 
ment, now occupied as residences by the superior officers, should 
not be converted into exhibition rooms ; space enough being 
reserved for one official residence on either side ; and if necessary, 
additional suitable ones might be rented in the immediate neigh- 
bourhood, and the collections thus saved the unavoidable wear 
and tear of removal, and at the same time preserved in their pre- 
sent convenient position of access to the general public. But the 
exodus has been decided upon, and the question itself is of 
secondary importance compared with that of administration. On 
a future occasion I would direct attention to a few other points. 
BATHYBIUS 

Steam Lifeboats 
THE Glove of Friday last contained a report of the proceedings 
of the Committee of the Steam Lifeship Fund, from which it 
would appear that the subject of the construction of a steam 
lifeship is seriously contemplated. As one who has for several 
years given great attention to this most desirable object, perhaps 
you will allow me to give the results of my labours. 
