ESSAYS ON EVOLUTION. 



487 



(b) pigment colours ; (2) pattern ; (3) form ; (4) altitude ; (5) movement.* 

 Now for each of these items there must have been innumerable deaths, 

 from not only not having the desired sort, but by developing " injurious " 

 variations. t Has any trace of such been observed in Nature ? 



It would seem that the prevalent "confidence" in natural selection 

 entirely rests on the assumption of its efficacy. If so, then the general 

 belief in it is accounted for ; but, I repeat, no Darwinian ever gives a 

 sign of having "fitted a case" to Darwin's demands for the conditions 

 required by natural selection, which are "indefinite variations," in which 

 the majority of the individuals must perish because they develop in them- 

 selves mortal variations. Such is the basal assumption of Darwinism. 



Putting natural selection on one side, the book is a very valuable 

 contribution to the literature of evolution, and will be the standard work 

 on animal mimicry. 



* Loc. cit. p. 241. 



f Origin, rfx. p. 63. 



