﻿4 Darwin, and after Darwin, 



less and walks more than the wild duck, and its limb bones 

 have become diminished and increased in a corresponding 

 manner in comparison with those of the wild duck. A horse is 

 trained to certain paces, and the colt inherits similar consensual 

 movements. The domesticated rabbit becomes tame from 

 close confinement ; the dog, intelligent from associating with 

 man; the retriever is taught to fetch and carry; and these 

 mental endowments and bodily powers are all inherited. 

 Nothing in the whole circuit of physiology is more wonderful. 

 How can the use or disuse of a particular limb or of the brain 

 affect a small aggregate of reproductive cells, seated in a distant 

 part of the body, in such a manner that the being developed 

 from these cells inherits the characters of either one or both 

 parents ? . . . In the chapters devoted to inheritance, it was 

 shown that a multitude of newly acquired characters, whether 

 injurious or beneficial, whether of the lowest or highest vital 

 importance, are often faithfully transmitted V 



"When discussing special cases, Mr. Mivart passes over the 

 effects of the increased use and disuse of parts, which I have 

 always maintained to be highly important, and have treated in 

 my 'Variation under Domestication' at greater length than, 

 as I believe, any other writer V 



So much for the matured opinion of Darwin touching 

 the validity of the theory of use-inheritance. Turning 

 now to his opinion on the question whether or not 

 there are yet any further factors concerned in the 

 process of organic evolution, I think it will be sufficient 

 to quote a single passage from the Origin of Species. 

 The first paragraph of the " Conclusion " is devoted 

 to a rfcume of his views upon this matter, and con- 

 sists of the following most emphatic words. 



" I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which 

 have thoroughly convinced me that species have been modified, 

 during a long course of descent. This has been effected chiefly 

 through the natural selection of numerous successive, slight, 



1 Variation &c. ii. p. 367. * Origin of Specus t p. 176. 



