MIMICRY AND NATURAL SELECTION 267 



theory, not dependent upon the principle of Selection, 

 which could explain such extraordinary superficial re- 

 semblances among numbers of species by methods which 

 are entirely unlike in their details. 



13. The supposed Direct Effect of Local Forces implies 

 the Hereditary Transmission of Acquired Characters. 



Finally, the hypothesis which is more commonly than 

 any other substituted for Natural Selection, has the 

 further disadvantage that it implies the unproved im- 

 probable hypothesis of the hereditary transmission of 

 acquired characters. 



A discussion of this latter hypothesis cannot be at- 

 tempted here. 1 It will be sufficient to observe that after 

 years of search no particle of evidence in its favour, 

 which can stand the test of investigation, has been forth- 

 coming. 



14. General Conclusions : Natural Selection as the 



Cause of Mimetic Resemblance and Common 

 Warninz Colours. 



I think it is not too much to claim that, even if the 

 theories which have been proposed as substitutes for 

 Natural Selection have not been destroyed in single 

 Sections of this essay, — and I confidently believe that 

 they have been thus destroyed over and over again, — 

 their most convinced supporter will admit that they 

 must yield to the accumulated pressure of all the argu- 

 ments here brought forward. 



The resemblances of Mimicry and Common Warning 

 Colours have certain salient features in common, certain 

 peculiarities which are apt to manifest themselves re- 

 peatedly ; they also bear certain general relationships to 

 other resemblances in organic nature. In this paper 

 I have attempted to set down all the general state- 

 ments which can be made as to the phenomena under 

 discussion. These general statements represent an 



1 The hypothesis in question has been discussed in Essays iii and v, 

 pages 95 and 139. 



