Darwin’s Claim to Descent 171 
that Mr. Darwin “ laid no sort of claim to originality or 
proprietorship ”’ in the theory of descent with modification, 
and this is the point with which we are immediately con- 
cerned. Mr. Darwin says :— 
“In considering the origin of species, it is quite con- 
ceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities 
of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their 
geographical distribution, geological succession, and other 
such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species 
had not been independently created, but had descended 
like varieties from other species.” 
It will be observed that not only is no hint given here 
that descent with modification was a theory which, though 
unknown to the general public, had been occupying the 
attention of biologists for a hundred years and more, but 
it is distinctly implied that this was not the case. When 
Mr. Darwin said it was ‘“ conceivable that a naturalist 
might ” arrive at the theory of descent, straightforward 
readers took him to mean that though this was conceivable, 
it had never, to Mr. Darwin’s knowledge, been done. If we 
had a notion that we had already vaguely heard of the 
theory that men and the lower animals were descended 
from common ancestors, we must have been wrong; it 
was not this that we had heard of, but something else, 
which, though doubtless a little like it, was all wrong, 
whereas this was obviously going to be all right. 
To follow the rest of the paragraph with the closeness 
that it merits would be a task at once so long and so 
unpleasant that I will omit further reference to any part 
of it except the last sentence. That sentence runs :— 
“In the case of the mistletoe, which draws its nourish- 
ment from certain trees, which has seeds that must be 
transported by certain birds, and which has flowers with 
separate sexes absolutely requiring the agency of certain 
insects to bring pollen from one flower to the other, it is 
equally preposterous to account for the structure of this 
