﻿Appendix II. 319 



becomes of the whole of Mr. Wallace's contention against 

 which this Appendix is directed, namely, that Darwin never 

 entertained any other view than that of the "general, or 

 universal, utility of specific characters " ? 



The " latest expression of opinion " which Mr. Wallace 

 quotes, occurs in a letter written to Professor Semper in 

 1878. It is as follows : — 



"As our knowledge advances, very slight differences, con- 

 sidered by systematists as of no importance in structure, are 

 continually found to be functionally important; and I have 

 been especially struck with this fact in the case of plants, to 

 which my observations have of late years been confined. There- 

 fore it seems to me rather rash to consider the slight differ- 

 ences between representative species, for instance those in- 

 habiting the different islands of the same archipelago, as of 

 no functional importance, and as not in any way due to natural 

 selection V 



Now, with regard to this passage it is to be observed, as 

 already remarked, that it refers to the formation of final 

 judgements touching particular cases : there is nothing to show 

 that the writer is contemplating general principles, or advo- 

 cating on deductive grounds the dogma that specific char- 

 acters must be necessarily and universally adaptive characters. 

 Therefore, what he here says is neither more nor less than 

 I have said. For I have always held that it would be " rather 

 rash " to conclude that any given cases of apparent inutility 

 are certainly cases of real inutility, merely on the ground that 

 utility is not perceived. But this is clearly quite a distinct 

 matter from resisting the a priori generalization that all cases 

 of apparent inutility must certainly be cases of real utility. 

 And, I maintain, in every part of his writings, without any 

 exception, where Darwin alludes to this matter of general 

 principle, it is in terms which directly contradict the de- 

 duction in question. As the whole of this Appendix has 



1 Life and Letters, vol. iii. p. 161 . 



