4C) 
very remarkable one, foreshadowing the oj^inions of both Darwin 
and Wallace. For if the Darwinian theory be correctly defined, 
as I think it is, as a theory of variation by ISTatural Selection 
supplemented by Sexual Selection, to which Wallace takes ex- 
ception by doubting the influence of the latter, we find that 
Dlyth lays down most clearly the doctrine of selection by ad- 
vantage in the “struggle for existence,” whilst he doubts the 
influence of conscious Sexual Selection among animals, though 
freely acknowledging it in the human species j and it must be re- 
membered that this paper was published in 1835, nine years before 
Dai win read his maiiuscrijit to Dr. Hooker and communicated 
his results to Sir Charles Lyell, and no less than twenty-three 
years before the ajjpearance of Darwin’s and Wallace’s pajiers 
in the ‘Linneaii Transactions,’ and twenty-four before the first 
publication of the ‘ Origin of Species.’ Even the phrase of the 
“struggle for existence,” which appears as the “struggle for 
life ” with Darwin, was anticipated not by one who, like the 
other authors, had the advantage of extensive travel and residence 
in favoured and tropical climates, but by a youngster of five- 
and-twenty, but newly emancipated from his chemist’s business, 
without means or advantages of any kind. 
It is curious also to reflect how little notice the new hypothesis 
which, we are now told, is to revolutionise scientific thought and 
to vanquish all other forms of thought, seems to have attracted 
when first published. Eo kind leading savans took up the 
new gospel; even the author’s biographer omits to notice tliis 
publication in his list of papers, and this although it appeared 
ill one of the most influential scientific ]ieriodicals of its day, 
the progenitor of our ‘ Annals,’ every paper in Avhich is, now-a-days, 
eagerly noted and most carefully chronicled. It would have 
been most interesting to have traced the development of Blvth’s 
vieivs in the essay which he seems to have contemplated at the time 
of his death on the “ Origination of Species,” in ivliich Ave should 
have had the benefit of his long and intimate acquaintance Avith tiie 
fauna of India; but of this it is stated in the memoir tliere Avas 
only found one paper, “ On the Origination of the various Eacos 
of I\Ian,” Avhich contains nothing original, but brings together 
numerous points of resemblance and contrast observable in the 
several groups of the order Primates. 
