474 ON SPECIES 
to species-mongers, and it is cast in your teeth every 
moment, as an argument for making every slight difference, 
if only accompanied with geographical segregation, of specific 
value. 
Nevertheless I am quite aware that such species must 
exist ; I do not deny, nor would I blink, the evidence in 
favour of it, nor that it is the gravest of all objections to the 
pronouncement upon species in our present state of know- 
ledge. I therefore admit its application to practice only in 
exceptional cases. The long and short of it is, that if you 
admit two centres you may as well admit all Agassiz, you 
cannot draw the line, and Geographical distribution is hence 
a vain study, the connection of hfe with the revolutions of 
our globe and with all the physics of nature is naught, and 
nothing can come of its pursuit but the temporary gratifica- 
tion of taste and ingenuity. 
I am amused by fancying you * fall into the snare you lay 
for another ' — the following, which shews how all these argu- 
ments cut two ways. You say generic resemhlance is a strong 
point, and not enough dwelt upon. I grant it fully. I 
suppose I thought it too hackneyed, though it is far from 
being so in a philosophical point of view. But you go on with 
consummate sangfroid to tell me of Dorking fowls and Manx 
cats, starting off at a tangent without rhyme or reason ! 
This I grant too, but let me ask you what would be done by 
Gould or Agassiz with a Dorking fowl, if it were shot and 
skinned in the Andamans and brought from thence as its 
only habitat ? Not only would a new genus be made of it, 
but its toes would lead to a deal of pen, ink and paper, analo- 
gies, affinities, relations, &c., &c., &c. Ditto wdth the Manx 
cat, an osteological specific character would be found for it 
as easily as Cuvier found one for the Falkland Islands rabbit, 
which had not been 30 years out from Europe ! Oh dear, oh 
dear, my mind is not fully, faithfully, implicitly given to 
species as created entities ah origine, but it is to the im- 
perative necessity of sticking to one side or the other and, 
without being bound by it, referring, arranging, and reasoning 
by it. I take that side which, though apparently the most 
narrow and prejudiced, is the only one which really keeps 
the mind open to investigate, which co-ordinates all the 
elements of geography, system and physiology, and which 
