Chapter XV 
The Excised ‘‘ My’s” 
HAVE quoted in all ninety-seven passages, as near as I 
can make them, in which Mr. Darwin claimed the theory 
of descent, either expressly by speaking of “‘ my theory” 
in such connection that the theory of descent ought to be, 
and, as the event has shown, was, understood as being 
intended, or by implication, as in the opening passages of 
the ‘‘ Origin of Species,” in which he tells us how he had 
thought the matter out without acknowledging obligation 
of any kind to earlier writers. The original edition of the 
“ Origin of Species ” contained 490 pp., exclusive of index ; 
a claim, therefore, more or less explicit, to the theory of 
descent was made on the average about once in every 
five pages throughout the book from end to end; the 
claims were most prominent in the most important parts, 
that is to say, at the beginning and end of the work, and 
this made them more effective than they are made even by 
their frequency. A more ubiquitous claim than this it 
would be hard to find in the case of any writer advancing 
a new theory ; it is difficult, therefore, to understand how 
Mr. Grant Allen could have allowed himself to say that 
Mr. Darwin “laid no sort of claim to originality or pro- 
prietorship ” in the theory of descent with modification. 
Nevertheless I have only found one place where Mr, 
Darwin pinned himself down beyond possibility of retreat, 
however ignominious, by using the words “‘ my theory of 
descent with modification.”* He often, as I have said, 
* “ Origin of Species,” p. 381, ed.i. 
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