﻿314 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



I will first take the passages which Mr. Wallace him- 

 self supplies from among those which I had previously 

 indicated. 



" But when, from the nature of the organism and of the 

 conditions, modifications have been induced which are unim- 

 portant for the welfare of the species, they may be, and ap- 

 parently often have been, transmitted in nearly the same state 

 to numerous, otherwise modified, descendants V 



On this passage Mr. Wallace remarks that the last five 

 words "clearly show that such characters are usually not 

 ' specific,' in the sense that they are such as distinguish 

 species from one another, but are found in numerous allied 

 species." But I cannot see that the passage shows anything 

 of the sort. What to my mind it does show is, (a) that 

 Mr. Darwin repudiated Mr. Wallace's doctrine touching the 

 necessary utility of all specific characters : (&) that he takes 

 for granted the contrary doctrine touching the inutility of 

 some specific characters: (c) that without in this place 

 alluding to the proportional number of useless specific 

 characters, he refers their origin in some cases to "the 

 nature of the organism" (i.e. "spontaneous variability" due 

 to internal causes), and in other cases to " the conditions " 

 (i. e. variability induced by external causes) : (d) that when 

 established as a specific character by heredity, such a useless 

 character was held by him not to tend to become obsolete by 

 the influence of natural selection or any other cause ; but, on 

 the contrary, to be " transmitted in nearly the same state to 

 numerous, otherwise modified, descendants " — or progeny of 

 the species in genera, families, &c. : (e) and, therefore, that 

 useless characters which are now distinctive of genera, 

 families, &c, were held by him frequently, if not usually, to 

 point to uselessness of origin, when first they arose as merely 

 specific characters. Even the meaning which Mr. Wallace 

 reads into this passage must imply every one of these points ; 



1 Origin of Species, p. 175. Italics mine. 



