78 



the idea involved is not entirely unqual 

 by the following significant statement: 



This I understand to be in effect a protest against de- 

 ducing proof of separate creations from the imperfection 

 of the geological record, coupled with an admission that 

 saltation or mutation does, at least occasionally, occur 

 among existing living forms. I trust you perceive the 

 importance of the concession that natura non facit saltnm 

 is not strictly correct as applied to the present inhabitants 

 of the world. 



Having noticed Mr. Darwin's repeated use of the words 

 per saltum, I now wish to revert to his frequent use of 

 the words monster and monstrosity and to call your at- 

 tention to the fact that they are not always employed 

 with exactly the same meanings. Sometimes by "mon- 

 strosity" he evidently intends to indicate a mere de- 

 formity of the nature of an accidental injury, or aborted 

 or perverted development, but more generally he refers 

 to a deviation from type wide enough, or discontinuous 

 enough, to exclude it from the category of variations 

 to which he supposed the operation of natural selection 

 must be confined. Among domesticated animals and 

 plants, however, the word monster as used by him often 

 meant no more than the word "sport." In* most cases 

 when he used this term or one of its derivatives he took 

 care to explain that monstrosities could not be qualita- 

 tively separated from other kinds of variations. Thus, 

 in writing to h\ Meldola, in 1873 he s-rv<- 



