﻿Appendix II. 313 



has anywhere expressed an opinion as to whether natural 

 selection has been necessarily concerned in the origin of all 

 species, the issue here is as to whether he held this with 

 regard to all specific characters. It will be remembered that 

 while opposing this doctrine as erroneous both in logic and 

 in fact, I have represented that it is not a doctrine which 

 Darwin sanctioned ; but, on the contrary, that it is one 

 which he expressly failed to sanction, by recognizing the 

 frequent inutility of specific characters. Mr. Wallace, on the 

 other hand, alleges that Darwin did believe in the universal — 

 as distinguished from the general — utility of such characters. 

 And he adds that he has " looked in vain in Mr. Darwin's 

 works " for any justification of my statements to the contrary *. 

 Therefore I will endeavour to show that Mr. Wallace's search 

 has not been a very careful one. 



We must remember, however, that it was not until the 

 appearance of my paper on Physiological Selection, four 

 years after Darwin's death, that the question now in debate 

 was raised. Consequently, he never had occasion to deal 

 expressly with this particular question — viz. whether "the 

 doctrine of utility" has any peculiar reference to specific 

 characters — as he surely would have done had he entertained 

 the important distinction between specific and all other 

 characters which Mr. Wallace now alleges that he did 

 entertain. But, be this as it may, we cannot expect 

 to find in Darwin's writings any express allusion to a 

 question which had not been raised until 1886. The 

 most we can expect to find are scattered sentences which 

 prove that the distinction in question was never so much 

 as present to his mind,— i. e. never occurred to him as 

 even a possible distinction. 



1 Darwinism, p. 131. He says: — "I have looked in vain in 

 Mr. Darwin's works for any such acknowledgement " (i. e. " that a large 

 proportion of specific distinctions must be conceded useless to the species 

 presenting them "). 



