PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION 



DuEiNQ the successive reprints of tlie first edition of this 

 work, published in 1871, I was able to introduce several im- 

 portant corrections; and now that more time has elapsed, 1 

 have endeavored to profit by the fiery ordeal through which 

 the book has passed, and have taken advantage of all the 

 criticisms which seem to me sound. I am also greatly in- 

 debted to a large number of correspondents for the commu- 

 nication of a surprising number of new facts and remarks. 

 These have been so numerous, that I have been able to use 

 only the more important ones ; and of these, as well as of 

 the more important corrections, I will append a list. Some 

 new illustrations have been introduced, and four of the old 

 drawings have been replaced by better ones, done from life 

 by Mr. T. W. Wood. I must especially call attention to 

 some observations which I owe to the kindness of Profes- 

 sor Huxley (given as a supplement at the end of Part I.), 

 on the nature of the differences between the brains of man 

 and the higher apes. I have been particularly glad to give 

 these observations, because during the last few years sev- 

 eral memoirs on the subject have appeared on the Conti- 

 nent, and their importance has been, in some cases, greatly 

 exaggerated by popular writers. 



I may take this opportunity of remarking that my critics 

 frequently assume that I attribute all changes of corporeal 

 structure and mental power exclusively to the natural se- 

 lection of such variations as are often called spontaneous; 

 whereas, even in the first edition of the "Origin of Species," 

 I distinctly stated that great weight must be attributed to 

 the inherited efEects of use and disuse, with respect both 



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