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Ch. XXXV.] AND DAEWIN ON NATUEAL SELECTION. 



281 



form 



of a species gives 



an advantage to some individuals 



over others^ Mr. Wallace sliows that even 



a change of 



colonr^ by rendering certain animals more or less distinguish- 

 able^ affects their safety. He also observes that in a state of 

 nature^ a race better fitted for changed conditions would never 

 revert to the form which it had displaced ; although in the 

 case of domesticated animals alloAved to run wild or become 

 ' feral/ they must, to a certain extent, recover the character 



man, for 



The 



which they had lost during their 



reasons which will be explained in Chapter XXXVII 



some 



notion that animals may by their own efforts promote the 

 development of some of their organs, or even acquire new ones. 

 ' Changes,' says Mr. Wallace, ' have been brought about, not 

 by the volition of the creatures themselves, but by the sur- 

 vival of varieties which had the greatest facilities of obtaining 

 food. The giraffe did not acquire its long neck by desiring 



to reach the foliage of lofty trees and by constantly stretching 

 out its neck for that purpose, but varieties which occurred 

 with a longer neck than usual had an advantage over their 

 shorter-necked companions, and, on the first scarcity of food, 

 were enabled to survive them.' * 



After the publication of the detached .chapter of his book 



Mr 





om 



Avorld. the result of his investigations on the nature and 



Natural 



Great 



was the sensation produced in the scientific world by the 

 appearance of the abridged and condensed statement of his 

 views comprised in his work entitled ^On the Orio-in of 



means 



of favoured Eaces in the Struggle for Life.' From tlie hour 

 of its appearance it gave, as Professor Huxley truly said, ' a 

 new direction to biological speculation,' for even where it 

 failed to make proselytes, it gave a shock to old and time- 

 honoured opinions from which they have never since re- 

 covered. It effected this not merely by the manner in which 



* Journ. of Linnsean Soc. p. 61. 



