2t)2 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIOKS To THE [Chap. VI.. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEOBY OF 

 NATURAL SELECTION. 



Longevity — Modifications not necessarily simultaneous — Modifica- 

 tions apparently of no direct service — Progressive development 

 — Characters of small functional importance, the most con- 

 stant — Supposed incompetence of natural selection to account 

 for the incipient stages of useful structures — Causes which in- 

 terfere with the acquisition through natural selection of useful 

 structures — Gradations of structure with changed functions — 

 Widely different organs in members of the same class, de- 

 veloped from one and the same source — Reasons for disbeliev- 

 ing in great and abrupt modifications. 



I WILL devote this chapter to the consideration of 

 various miscellaneous objections which have been ad- 

 vanced against my views, as some of the previous discus- 

 sions may thus be made clearer; but it would be useless 

 to discuss all of them, as many have been made by writers 

 who have not taken the trouble to understand the sub- 

 ject. Thus a distinguished German naturalist has as- 

 serted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I con- 

 sider all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really 

 said is, that all are not as perfect as they might have 

 been in relation to their conditions; and this is shown 

 to be the- case by so many native forms in many quarters 

 of the world having yielded their places to intruding 

 foreigners. Nor can organic beings, even if they were 



