Origin and Primal Condition of Man. 51 



and natural selection ; which theory is, that such animals 

 as by some innate peculiarity of structure or physiology 

 are better adapted for the struggle for life in the place 

 where they exist, survive at the expense of others less fa- 

 vored, and ultimately found new species and genera by 

 their offspring retaining and still further developing such 

 peculiarities. For example, a butterfly, having an unusu- 

 ally prolonged proboscis has in some localities a better 

 chance of life than others who can not drain the honey from 

 a deep corolla, and it will transmit this peculiarity of struc- 

 ture to its offspring, among whom in turn, those whose 

 probosces are longest might alone survive, and thus in time 

 a species of butterflies with long probosces, and other re- 

 lated peculiarities of structure and function will be deve- 

 loped. (See Mivart, p. 22, for a prediction that new species 

 of hawk moths with enormously long probosces will be 

 found in Madagascar). But this principle of natural selec- 

 tion does not suffice fully to account for all the phenomena 

 of creation and differentiation of species. Neither yet does 

 Lamarck's theory of progression by cultivation, and trans- 

 mission of acquired habit to offspring as an innate pecu- 

 liarity, though both these influences are constantly at work, 

 and it is certain that animals are modified to some extent 

 by inheritance of habits and also of structure and physi- 

 ology from their progenitors. Something beyond and 

 above both these causes must be adduced to solve the 

 difficult problem of genesis of species in all its multifarious 

 forms and relations, and just what that principle is we do 

 not yet know. We may, to be sure, say with Geoffroy 

 Hilaire and Wallace that it is the direct action of the Deity, 

 but this is no real answer, since we believe all things to 

 result from his action, and are seeking to discover by what 

 mode of action he proceeds. New forms of animal life of 

 all degrees of complexity, appear from time to time with com- 

 parative suddenness, being evolved according to laws in part 



