LETTER 173. TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, January 1st, 1864.
I am still unable to write otherwise than by dictation. In a letter
received two or three weeks ago from Asa Gray he writes: "I read lately
with gusto Wallace's expose of the Dublin man on Bees' cells, etc."
(173/1. "Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton's paper on the Bee's Cell and
on the Origin of Species" ("Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist." XII., 1863, page
303). Prof. Haughton's paper was read before the Natural History Society
of Dublin, November 21st, 1862, and reprinted in the "Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist." XI., 1863, page 415. See Letters 73, 74, 75.) Now, though
I cannot read at present, I much want to know where this is published,
that I may procure a copy. Further on, Asa Gray says (after speaking of
Agassiz's paper on Glaciers in the "Atlantic Magazine" and his
recent book entitled "Method of Study"): "Pray set Wallace upon these
articles." So Asa Gray seems to think much of your powers of reviewing,
and I mention this as it assuredly is laudari a laudato. I hope you are
hard at work, and if you are inclined to tell me, I should much like to
know what you are doing. It will be many months, I fear, before I shall
do anything.
LETTER 174. TO J.L.A. DE QUATREFAGES. Down, March 27th [1864?].
I had heard that your work was to be translated, and I heard it with
pleasure; but I can take no share of credit, for I am not an active,
only an honorary member of the Society. Since writing I have finished
with extreme interest to the end your admirable work on metamorphosis.
(174/1. Probably "Metamorphoses of Man and the Lower Animals."
Translated by H. Lawson, 1864.) How well you are acquainted with the
works of English naturalists, and how generously you bestow honour on
them! Mr. Lubbock is my neighbour, and I have known him since he was a
little boy; he is in every way a thoroughly good man; as is my friend
Huxley. It gave me real pleasure to see you notice their works as you
have done.
LETTER 175. TO T.H. HUXLEY. Down, April 11th [1864].
I am very much obliged for your present of your "Comp. Anatomy." (175/1.
"Lectures on the Elements of Comparative Anatomy," 1864.) When strong
enough I am sure I shall read it with greatest interest. I could not
resist the last chapter, of which I have read a part, and have been much
interested about the "inspired idiot." (175/2. In reference to Oken
(op. cit., page 282) Huxley says: "I must confess I never read his works
without thinking of the epithet of 'inspired idiot' applied to our own
Goldsmith.") If Owen wrote the article "Oken" (175/3. The article on
Oken in the eighth edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" is signed
"R.O.": Huxley wrote to Darwin (April 18th, 1864), "There is not the
smallest question that Owen wrote both the article 'Oken' and the
'Archetype' Book" (Huxley's "Life," I., page 250). Mr. Huxley's
statements amount to this: (1) Prof. Owen accuses Goethe of having in
1820 appropriated Oken's theory of the skull, and of having given an
apocryphal account of how the idea occurred to himself in 1790. (2) in
the same article, page 502, Owen stated it to be questionable whether
the discoverer of the true theory of the segmental constitution of
the skull (i.e. himself) was excited to his labours, or "in any way
influenced by the a priori guesses of Oken." On this Huxley writes, page
288: "But if he himself had not been in any way influenced by Oken, and
if the 'Programm' [of Oken] is a mere mass of 'a priori guesses,' how
comes it that only three years before Mr. Owen could write thus? 'Oken,
ce genie profond et penetrant, fut le premier qui entrevit la verite,
guide par l'heureuse idee de l'arrangement des os craniens en segments,
comme ceux du rachis, appeles vertebres...'" Later on Owen wrote:
"Cela servira pour exemple d'une examen scrupuleux des faits, d'une
appreciation philosophique de leurs relations et analogies, etc." (From
"Principes d'Osteologie comparee, ou Recherches sur l'Archetype," etc.,
pages 155, 1855). (3) Finally Huxley says, page 289, plainly: "The fact
is that, so far from not having been 'in any way influenced' by Oken,
Prof. Owen's own contributions to this question are the merest Okenism,
remanie.") and the French work on the Archetype (points you do not put
quite clearly), he never did a baser act...You are so good a Christian
that you will hardly understand how I chuckle over this bit of baseness.
I hope you keep well and hearty; I honour your wisdom at giving up at
present Society for Science. But, on the other hand, I feel it in myself
possible to get to care too much for Natural Science and too little for
other things. I am getting better, I almost dare to hope permanently;
for my sickness is decidedly less--for twenty-seven days consecutively I
was sick many times daily, and lately I was five days free. I long to do
a little work again. The magnificent (by far the most magnificent, and
too magnificent) compliment which you paid me at the end of your "Origin
of Species" (175/4. A title applied to the "Lectures to Working Men,"
that "green little book" referred to in Letter 156. Speaking of Mr.
Darwin's work he says (page 156): "I believe that if you strip it of its
theoretical part, it still remains one of the greatest encyclopaedias of
biological doctrine that any one man ever brought forth; and I believe
that, if you take it as the embodiment of an hypothesis, it is destined
to be the guide of biological and psychological speculation for the next
three or four generations.') I have met with reprinted from you two or
three times lately.
LETTER 175A. TO ERASMUS DARWIN. Down, June 30th, 1864.
(175A.1. The preceding letter contains a reference to the prolonged
period of ill-health which Darwin suffered in 1863 and 1864, and in this
connection the present letter is of interest.
The Copley Medal was given to him in 1864.)
I had not heard a word about the Copley Medal. Please give Falconer
my cordial thanks for his interest about me. I enclose the list of
everything published by me except a few unimportant papers. Ask Falconer
not to mention that I sent the list, as some one might say I had been
canvassing, which is an odious imputation. The origin of the Voyage in
the "Beagle" was that Fitz-Roy generously offered to give up half his
cabin to any one who would volunteer to go as naturalist. Beaufort wrote
to Cambridge, and I volunteered. Fitz-Roy never persuaded me to give
up the voyage on account of sickness, nor did I ever think of doing so,
though I suffered considerably; but I do not believe it was the cause of
my subsequent ill-health, which has lost me so many years, and therefore
I should not think the sea-sickness was worth notice. It would save you
trouble to forward this with my kindest remembrances to Falconer.
(176/1. The following letter was the beginning of a correspondence with
Mr. B.D. Walsh, whom C.V. Riley describes as "one of the ablest and most
thorough entomologists of our time.")
LETTER 176. B.D. WALSH TO CHARLES DARWIN. Rock Island, Illinois, U.S.,
April 29th, 1864.
(176/2. The words in square brackets are restorations of parts torn off
the original letter.)
More than thirty years ago I was introduced to you at your rooms in
Christ's College by A.W. Grisebach, and had the pleasure of seeing your
noble collection of British Coleoptera. Some years afterwards I became a
Fellow of Trinity, and finally gave up my Fellowship rather than go into
Orders, and came to this country. For the last five or six years I have
been paying considerable attention to the insect fauna of the U.S., some
of the fruits of which you will see in the enclosed pamphlets. Allow
me to take this opportunity of thanking you for the publication of your
"Origin of Species," which I read three years ago by the advice of
a botanical friend, though I had a strong prejudice against what I
supposed then to be your views. The first perusal staggered me, the
second convinced me, and the oftener I read it the more convinced I am
of the general soundness of your theory.
As you have called upon naturalists that believe in your views to give
public testimony of their convictions, I have directed your attention on
the outside of one or two of my pamphlets to the particular passages in
which [I] have done so. You will please accept these papers from me in
token of my respect and admiration.
As you may see from the latest of these papers, I [have] recently made
the remarkable discover that there [are the] so-called "three sexes" not
only in social insects but [also in the] strictly solitary genus Cynips.
When is your great work to make its appearance? [I should be] much
pleased to receive a few lines from you.
LETTER 177. TO B.D. WALSH. Down, October 21st [1864].
Ill-health has prevented me from sooner thanking you for your very kind
letter and several memoirs.
I have been very much pleased to see how boldly and clearly you speak
out on the modification of species. I thank you for giving me the pages
of reference; but they were superfluous, for I found so many original
and profound remarks that I have carefully looked through all the
papers. I hope that your discovery about the Cynips (177/1. "On
Dimorphism in the hymenopterous genus Cynips," "Proc. Entom. Soc.
Philadelphia," March, 1864. Mr. Walsh's view is that Cynips quercus
aciculata is a dimorphous form of Cynips q. spongifica, and occurs only
as a female. Cynips q. spongifica also produces spongifica females and
males from other galls at a different time of year.) will hold good, for
it is a remarkable one, and I for one have often marvelled what could
be the meaning of the case. I will lend your paper to my neighbour Mr.
Lubbock, who I know is much interested in the subject. Incidentally I
shall profit by your remarks on galls. If you have time I think a rather
hopeless experiment would be worth trying; anyhow, I should have tried
it had my health permitted. It is to insert a minute grain of some
organic substance, together with the poison from bees, sand-wasps,
ichneumons, adders, and even alkaloid poisons into the tissues of
fitting plants for the chance of monstrous growths being produced.
(177/2. See "Life and Letters," III., page 346, for an account of
experiments attempted in this direction by Mr. Darwin in 1880. On the
effects of injuring plant-tissues, see Massart, "La Cicatrisation, etc."
in Tome LVII. of the "Memoires Couronnes" of the Brussels Academy.)
My health has long been poor, and I have lately suffered from a long
illness which has interrupted all work, but I am now recommencing a
volume in connection with the "Origin."
P.S.--If you write again I should very much like to hear what your life
in your new country is.
What can be the meaning or use of the great diversity of the external
generative organs in your cases, in Bombus, and the phytophagous
coleoptera?
What can there be in the act of copulation necessitating such complex
and diversified apparatus?
LETTER 178. TO W.H. FLOWER. Down, July 11th, 1864.
I am truly obliged for all the trouble which you have taken for me, and
for your very interesting note. I had only vaguely heard it said that
frogs had a rudiment of a sixth toe; had I known that such great men
had looked to the point I should not have dreamed of looking myself. The
rudiment sent to you was from a full-grown frog; so that if these bones
are the two cuneiforms they must, I should think, be considered to be
in a rudimentary condition. This afternoon my gardener brought in
some tadpoles with the hind-legs alone developed, and I looked at the
rudiment. At this age it certainly looks extremely like a digit, for
the extremity is enlarged like that of the adjoining real toe, and
the transverse articulation seems similar. I am sorry that the case is
doubtful, for if these batrachians had six toes, I certainly think
it would have thrown light on the truly extraordinary strength of
inheritance in polydactylism in so many animals, and especially on the
power of regeneration in amputated supernumerary digits. (178/1. In the
first edition of "Variation under Domestication" the view here given is
upheld, but in the second edition (Volume I., page 459) Darwin withdrew
his belief that the development of supernumerary digits in man is "a
case of reversion to a lowly-organised progenitor provided with more
than five digits." See Letters 161, 270.)
LETTER 179. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down [October 22nd, 1864].
The Lyells have been here, and were extremely pleasant, but I saw them
only occasionally for ten minutes, and when they went I had an awful day
[of illness]; but I am now slowly getting up to my former standard. I
shall soon be confined to a living grave, and a fearful evil it is.
I suppose you have read Tyndall. (179/1. Probably Tyndall "On the
Conformation of the Alps" ("Phil. Mag." 1864, page 255).) I have now
come round again to Ramsay's view, (179/2. "Phil. Mag." 1864, page 293.)
for the third or fourth time; but Lyell says when I read his discussion
in the "Elements," I shall recant for the fifth time. (179/3. This
refers to a discussion on the "Connection of the predominance of Lakes
with Glacial Action" ("Elements," Edition VI., pages 168-74). Lyell
adheres to the views expressed in the "Antiquity of Man" (1863) against
Ramsay's theory of the origin of lake basins by ice action.) What a
capital writer Tyndall is!
In your last note you ask what the Bardfield oxlip is. It is P. elatior
of Jacq., which certainly looks, when growing, to common eyes different
from the common oxlip. I will fight you to the death that as primrose
and cowslip are different in appearance (not to mention odour,
habitat and range), and as I can now show that, when they cross, the
intermediate offspring are sterile like ordinary hybrids, they must be
called as good species as a man and a gorilla.
I agree that if Scott's red cowslip grew wild or spread itself and
did not vary [into] common cowslip (and we have absolutely no proof of
primrose or cowslip varying into each other), and as it will not cross
with the cowslip, it would be a perfectly good species. The power of
remaining for a good long period constant I look at as the essence of a
species, combined with an appreciable amount of difference; and no one
can say there is not this amount of difference between primrose and
oxlip.
(PLATE: HUGH FALCONER, 1844. From a photograph by Hill & Adamson.)
LETTER 180. HUGH FALCONER TO W. SHARPEY.
(180/1. Falconer had proposed Darwin for the Copley Medal of the Royal
Society (which was awarded to him in 1864), but being detained abroad,
he gave his reasons for supporting Darwin for this honour in a letter to
Sharpey, the Secretary of the Royal Society. A copy of the letter here
printed seems to have been given to Erasmus Darwin, and by him shown to
his brother Charles.)
Montauban, October 25th, 1864.
Busk and myself have made every effort to be back in London by the 27th
inst., but we have been persecuted by mishaps--through the breakdown
of trains, diligences, etc., so that we have been sadly put out in our
reckoning--and have lost some of the main objects that brought us round
by this part of France--none of which were idle or unimportant.
Busk started yesterday for Paris from Bruniquel, to make sure of being
present at the meeting of the Royal Council on Thursday. He will tell
you that there were strong reasons for me remaining behind him. But as I
seconded the proposal of Mr. Darwin for the Copley Medal, in default of
my presence at the first meeting, I beg that you will express my great
regrets to the President and Council at not being there, and that I am
very reluctantly detained. I shall certainly be in London (D.V.) by the
second meeting on the 3rd proximo. Meanwhile I solicit the favour of
being heard, through you, respecting the grounds upon which I seconded
Mr. Darwin's nomination for the Copley Medal.
Referring to the classified list which I drew up of Mr. Darwin's
scientific labours, ranging through the wide field of (1) Geology, (2)
Physical Geography, (3) Zoology, (4) physiological Botany, (5) genetic
Biology, and to the power with which he has investigated whatever
subject he has taken up,--Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit,--I am of
opinion that Mr. Darwin is not only one of the most eminent naturalists
of his day, but that hereafter he will be regarded as one of the great
naturalists of all countries and of all time. His early work on the
structure and distribution of coral reefs constitutes an era in the
investigation of the subject. As a monographic labour, it may be
compared with Dr. Wells' "Essay upon Dew," as original, exhaustive, and
complete--containing the closest observation with large and important
generalisations.
Among the zoologists his monographs upon the Balanidae and Lepadidae,
Fossil and Recent, in the Palaeontographical and Ray Societies'
publications, are held to be models of their kind.
In physiological Botany, his recent researches upon the dimorphism of
the genital organs in certain plants, embodied in his papers in the
"Linnean Journal," on Primula, Linum, and Lythrum, are of the highest
order of importance. They open a new mine of observation upon a field
which had been barely struck upon before. The same remark applies to his
researches on the structure and various adaptations of the orchideous
flower to a definite object connected with impregnation of the plants
through the agency of insects with foreign pollen. There has not yet
been time for their due influence being felt in the advancement of the
science. But in either subject they constitute an advance per saltum.
I need not dwell upon the value of his geological researches, which
won for him one of the earlier awards of the Wollaston Medal from the
Geological Society, the best of judges on the point.
And lastly, Mr. Darwin's great essay on the "Origin of Species" by
Natural Selection. This solemn and mysterious subject had been either so
lightly or so grotesquely treated before, that it was hardly regarded as
being within the bounds of legitimate philosophical investigation. Mr.
Darwin, after twenty years of the closest study and research, published
his views, and it is sufficient to say that they instantly fixed the
attention of mankind throughout the civilised world. That the efforts of
a single mind should have arrived at success on a subject of such vast
scope, and encompassed with such difficulties, was more than could have
been reasonably expected, and I am far from thinking that Charles Darwin
has made out all his case. But he has treated it with such power and in
such a philosophical and truth-seeking spirit, and illustrated it with
such an amount of original and collated observation as fairly to have
brought the subject within the bounds of rational scientific research.
I consider this great essay on genetic Biology to constitute a strong
additional claim on behalf of Mr. Darwin for the Copley Medal. (180/2.
The following letter (December 3rd, 1864), from Mr. Huxley to Sir J.D.
Hooker, is reprinted, by the kind permission of Mr. L. Huxley, from his
father's "Life," I., page 255. Sabine's address (from the "Reader") is
given in the "Life and Letters," III., page 28. In the "Proceedings of
the Royal Society" the offending sentence is slightly modified. It is
said, in Huxley's "Life" (loc. cit., note), that the sentence which
follows it was introduced to mitigate the effect:--
"I wish you had been at the anniversary meeting and dinner, because the
latter was very pleasant, and the former, to me, very disagreeable. My
distrust of Sabine is, as you know, chronic; and I went determined to
keep careful watch on his address, lest some crafty phrase injurious to
Darwin should be introduced. My suspicions were justified, the only part
of the address [relating] to Darwin written by Sabine himself containing
the following passage:
"'Speaking generally and collectively, we have expressly omitted it
[Darwin's theory] from the grounds of our award.'
"Of course this would be interpreted by everybody as meaning that after
due discussion, the council had formally resolved not only to exclude
Darwin's theory from the grounds of the award, but to give public notice
through the president that they had done so, and, furthermore, that
Darwin's friends had been base enough to accept an honour for him on the
understanding that in receiving it he should be publicly insulted!
"I felt that this would never do, and therefore, when the resolution for
printing the address was moved, I made a speech, which I took care
to keep perfectly cool and temperate, disavowing all intention of
interfering with the liberty of the president to say what he pleased,
but exercising my constitutional right of requiring the minutes of
council making the award to be read, in order that the Society might be
informed whether the conditions implied by Sabine had been imposed or
not.
"The resolution was read, and of course nothing of the kind appeared.
Sabine didn't exactly like it, I believe. Both Busk and Falconer
remonstrated against the passage to him, and I hope it will be withdrawn
when the address is printed. If not, there will be an awful row, and I
for one will show no mercy.")
In forming an estimate of the value and extent of Mr. Darwin's
researches, due regard ought to be had to the circumstances under which
they have been carried out--a pressure of unremitting disease, which
has latterly left him not more than one or two hours of the day which he
could call his own.
LETTER 181. TO HUGH FALCONER. Down, November 4th [1864].
What a good kind friend you are! I know well that this medal must have
cost you a deal of trouble. It is a very great honour to me, but I
declare the knowledge that you and a few other friends have interested
themselves on the subject is the real cream of the enjoyment to me;
indeed, it is to me worth far more than many medals. So accept my true
and cordial thanks. I hope that I may yet have strength to do a little
more work in Natural Science, shaky and old though I be. I have chuckled
and triumphed over your postscript about poor M. Brulle and his young
pupils (181/1. The following is the postscript in a letter from Falconer
to Darwin November 3rd [1864]: "I returned last night from Spain via
France. On Monday I was at Dijon, where, while in the Museum, M. Brulle,
Professor of Zoology, asked me what was my frank opinion of Charles
Darwin's doctrine? He told me in despair that he could not get his
pupils to listen to anything from him except a la Darwin! He, poor man,
could not comprehend it, and was still unconvinced, but that all young
Frenchmen would hear or believe nothing else.") About a week ago I had
a nearly similar account from Germany, and at the same time I heard of
some splendid converts in such men as Leuckart, Gegenbauer, etc. You may
say what you like about yourself, but I look at a man who treats natural
history in the same spirit with which you do, exactly as good, for what
I believe to be the truth, as a convert.
LETTER 182. TO HUGH FALCONER. Down, November 8th [1864].
Your remark on the relation of the award of the medal and the present
outburst of bigotry had not occurred to me. It seems very true, and
makes me the more gratified to receive it. General Sabine (182/1. See
"Life and Letters," III., page 28.) wrote to me and asked me to attend
at the anniversary, but I told him it was really impossible. I have
never been able to conjecture the cause; but I find that on my good
days, when I can write for a couple of hours, that anything which stirs
me up like talking for half or even a quarter of an hour, generally
quite prostrates me, sometimes even for a long time afterwards. I
believe attending the anniversary would possibly make me seriously ill.
I should enjoy attending and shaking you and a few of my other friends
by the hand, but it would be folly even if I did not break down at the
time. I told Sabine that I did not know who had proposed and seconded
me for the medal, but that I presumed it was you, or Hooker or Busk, and
that I felt sure, if you attended, you would receive the medal for me;
and that if none of you attended, that Lyell or Huxley would receive it
for me. Will you receive it, and it could be left at my brother's?
Again accept my cordial and enduring thanks for all your kindness and
sympathy.
LETTER 183. TO B.D. WALSH. Down, December 4th [1864].
I have been greatly interested by your account of your American life.
What an extraordinary and self-contained life you have led! and what
vigour of mind you must possess to follow science with so much ardour
after all that you have undergone! I am very much obliged to you for
your pamphlet on Geographical Distribution, on Agassiz, etc. (183/1. Mr.
Walsh's paper "On certain Entomological Speculations of the New England
School of Entomologists" was published in the "Proc. Entomolog. Soc. of
Philadelphia," September 1864, page 207.) I am delighted at the manner
in which you have bearded this lion in his den. I agree most entirely
with all that you have written. What I meant when I wrote to Agassiz
to thank him for a bundle of his publications, was exactly what you
suppose. (183/2. Namely, that Mr. Darwin, having been abused as an
atheist, etc., by other writers, probably felt grateful to a writer who
was willing to allow him "a spirit as reverential as his own." ("Methods
of Study," Preface, page iv.) I confess, however, I did not fully
perceive how he had misstated my views; but I only skimmed through
his "Methods of Study," and thought it a very poor book. I am so much
accustomed to be utterly misrepresented that it hardly excites my
attention. But you really have hit the nail on the head capitally. All
the younger good naturalists whom I know think of Agassiz as you do; but
he did grand service about glaciers and fish. About the succession of
forms, Pictet has given up his whole views, and no geologist now agrees
with Agassiz. I am glad that you have attacked Dana's wild notions;
[though] I have a great respect for Dana...If you have an opportunity,
read in "Trans. Linn. Soc." Bates on "Mimetic Lepidoptera of Amazons." I
was delighted with his paper.
I have got a notice of your views about the female Cynips inserted in
the "Natural History Review" (183/3. "Nat. Hist. Review," January 1865,
page 139. A notice by "J.L." (probably Lord Avebury) on Walsh's paper
"On Dimorphism in the Hymenopterous Genus Cynips," in the "Proc.
Entomolog. Soc. of Philadelphia," March, 1864.): whether the notice will
be favourable, I do not know, but anyhow it will call attention to your
views...
As you allude in your paper to the believers in change of species, you
will be glad to hear that very many of the very best men are coming
round in Germany. I have lately heard of Hackel, Gegenbauer, F. Muller,
Leuckart, Claparede, Alex. Braun, Schleiden, etc. So it is, I hear, with
the younger Frenchmen.
LETTER 184. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, January 19th [1865].
It is working hours, but I am trying to take a day's holiday, for I
finished and despatched yesterday my Climbing paper. For the last ten
days I have done nothing but correct refractory sentences, and I loathe
the whole subject like tartar emetic. By the way, I am convinced that
you want a holiday, and I think so because you took the devil's name in
vain so often in your last note. Can you come here for Sunday? You know
how I should like it, and you will be quiet and dull enough here to get
plenty of rest. I have been thinking with regret about what you said
in one of your later notes, about having neglected to make notes on the
gradation of character in your genera; but would it be too late? Surely
if you looked over names in series the facts would come back, and
you might surely write a fine paper "On the gradation of important
characters in the genera of plants." As for unimportant characters, I
have made their perfect gradation a very prominent point with respect
to the means of climbing, in my paper. I begin to think that one of the
commonest means of transition is the same individual plant having the
same part in different states: thus Corydalis claviculata, if you look
to one leaf, may be called a tendril-bearer; if you look to another leaf
it may be called a leaf-climber. Now I am sure I remember some cases
with plants in which important parts such as the position of the ovule
differ: differences in the spire of leaves on lateral and terminal
branches, etc.
There was not much in last "Natural History Review" which interested
me except colonial floras (184/1. "Nat. Hist. Review," 1865, page 46.
A review of Grisebach's "Flora of the British West Indian Islands" and
Thwaites' "Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylaniae." The point referred to is
given at page 57: "More than half the Flowering Plants belong to eleven
Orders in the case of the West Indies, and to ten in that of Ceylon,
whilst with but one exception the Ceylon Orders are the same as the West
Indian." The reviewer speculates on the meaning of the fact "in relation
to the hypothesis of an intertropical cold epoch, such as Mr. Darwin
demands for the migration of the Northern Flora to the Southern
hemisphere.") and the report on the sexuality of cryptogams. I
suppose the former was by Oliver; how extremely curious is the fact
of similarity of Orders in the Tropics! I feel a conviction that it
is somehow connected with Glacial destruction, but I cannot "wriggle"
comfortably at all on the subject. I am nearly sure that Dana makes out
that the greatest number of crustacean forms inhabit warmer temperate
regions.
I have had an enormous letter from Leo Lesquereux (after doubts, I did
not think it worth sending you) on Coal Flora: he wrote some excellent
articles in "Silliman" again [my] "Origin" views; but he says now after
repeated reading of the book he is a convert! But how funny men's minds
are! he says he is chiefly converted because my books make the Birth of
Christ, Redemption by Grace, etc., plain to him!
LETTER 185. TO J.D. HOOKER. Down, February 9th [1865].
I quite agree how humiliating the slow progress of man is, but every
one has his own pet horror, and this slow progress or even personal
annihilation sinks in my mind into insignificance compared with the idea
or rather I presume certainty of the sun some day cooling and we all
freezing. To think of the progress of millions of years, with every
continent swarming with good and enlightened men, all ending in this,
and with probably no fresh start until this our planetary system has
been again converted into red-hot gas. Sic transit gloria mundi, with a
vengeance...
LETTER 186. TO B.D. WALSH. Down, March 27th [1865].
I have been much interested by your letter. I received your former
paper on Phytophagic variety (186/1. For "Phytophagic Varieties and
Phytophagic Species" see "Proc. Entomolog. Soc. Philadelphia," November
1864, page 403, also December 1865. The part on gradation is summarised
at pages 427, 428. Walsh shows that a complete gradation exists between
species which are absolutely unaffected by change of food and cases
where "difference of food is accompanied by marked and constant
differences, either colorational, or structural, or both, in the larva,
pupa and imago states."), most of which was new to me. I have since
received your paper on willow-galls; this has been very opportune, as I
wanted to learn a little about galls. There was much in this paper which
has interested me extremely, on gradations, etc., and on your "unity
of coloration." (186/2. "Unity of coloration": this expression does not
seem to occur in the paper of November 1864, but is discussed at length
in that of December 1865, page 209.) This latter subject is nearly new
to me, though I collected many years ago some such cases with birds; but
what struck me most was when a bird genus inhabits two continents, the
two sections sometimes display a somewhat different type of colouring.
I should like to hear whether this does not occur with widely ranging
insect-genera? You may like to hear that Wichura (186/3. Max Wichura's
"Die Bastarde befruchtung im Pflanzenreich, etc:" Breslau 1865. A
translation appeared in the "Bibliotheque Universelle," xxiii., page
129: Geneva 1865.) has lately published a book which has quite convinced
me that in Europe there is a multitude of spontaneous hybrid willows.
Would it not be very interesting to know how the gall-makers behaved
with respect to these hybrids? Do you think it likely that the ancestor
of Cecidomyia acquired its poison like gnats (which suck men) for no
especial purpose (at least not for gall-making)? Such notions make me
wish that some one would try the experiments suggested in my former
letter. Is it not probable that guest-flies were aboriginally
gall-makers, and bear the same relation to them which Apathus probably
does to Bombus? (186/4. Apathus (= Psithyrus) lives in the nests of
Bombus. These insects are said to be so like humble bees that "they were
not distinguished from them by the early entomologists:" Dr. Sharp in
"Cambridge Nat. Hist. (Insects," Part II.), page 59.) With respect
to dimorphism, you may like to hear that Dr. Hooker tells me that
a dioecious parasitic plant allied to Rafflesia has its two sexes
parasitic on two distinct species of the same genus of plants; so look
out for some such case in the two forms of Cynips. I have posted to you
copies of my papers on dimorphism. Leersia (186/5. Leersia oryzoides
was for a long time thought to produce only cleistogamic and therefore
autogamous flowers. See "Variation of Animals and Plants," Edition II.,
Volume II., page 69.) does behave in a state of nature in the provoking
manner described by me. With respect to Wagner's curious discovery my
opinion is worth nothing; no doubt it is a great anomaly, but it does
not appear to me nearly so incredible as to you. Remember how allied
forms in the Hydrozoa differ in their so-called alternate generations;
I follow those naturalists who look at all such cases as forms of
gemmation; and a multitude of organisms have this power or traces
of this power at all ages from the germ to maturity. With respect to
Agassiz's views, there were many, and there are still not a few, who
believe that the same species is created on many spots. I wrote to
Bates, and he will send you his mimetic paper; and I dare say others: he
is a first-rate man.
Your case of the wingless insects near the Rocky Mountains is extremely
curious. I am sure I have heard of some such case in the Old World:
I think on the Caucasus. Would not my argument about wingless insular
insects perhaps apply to truly Alpine insects? for would it not be
destruction to them to be blown from their proper home? I should like to
write on many points at greater length to you, but I have no strength to
spare.
LETTER 187. TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, September 22nd [1865].
I am much obliged for your extract (187/1. Mr. Wallace had sent Darwin
a note about a tufted cock-blackbird, which transmitted the character
to some of its offspring.); I never heard of such a case, though such
a variation is perhaps the most likely of any to occur in a state of
nature, and to be inherited, inasmuch as all domesticated birds present
races with a tuft or with reversed feathers on their heads. I have
sometimes thought that the progenitor of the whole class must have been
a crested animal.
Do you make any progress with your journal of travels? I am the more
anxious that you should do so as I have lately read with much interest
some papers by you on the ourang-outan, etc., in the "Annals," of which
I have lately been reading the later volumes. I have always thought that
journals of this nature do considerable good by advancing the taste for
Natural History: I know in my own case that nothing ever stimulated my
zeal so much as reading Humboldt's "Personal Narrative." I have not yet
received the last part of the "Linnean Transactions," but your paper
(187/2. Probably on the variability and distribution of the butterflies
of the Malayan region: "Linn. Soc. Trans." XXV., 1866.) at present will
be rather beyond my strength, for though somewhat better, I can as yet
do hardly anything but lie on the sofa and be read aloud to. By the
way, have you read Tylor and Lecky? (187/3. Tylor, "Early History of
Mankind;" Lecky's "Rationalism.") Both these books have interested me
much. I suppose you have read Lubbock. (187/4. Lubbock, "Prehistoric
Times," page 479: "...the theory of Natural Selection, which with
characteristic unselfishness he ascribes unreservedly to Mr. Darwin.")
In the last chapter there is a note about you in which I most cordially
concur. I see you were at the British Association but I have heard
nothing of it except what I have picked up in the "Reader." I have heard
a rumour that the "Reader" is sold to the Anthropological Society. If
you do not begrudge the trouble of another note (for my sole channel of
news through Hooker is closed by his illness) I should much like to hear
whether the "Reader" is thus sold. I should be very sorry for it, as the
paper would thus become sectional in its tendency. If you write, tell
me what you are doing yourself. The only news which I have about the
"Origin" is that Fritz Muller published a few months ago a remarkable
book (187/5. "Fur Darwin.") in its favour, and secondly that a second
French edition is just coming out.
LETTER 188. TO F. MULLER. Down, January 11th [1866].
I received your interesting letter of November 5th some little time ago,
and despatched immediately a copy of my "Journal of Researches." I
fear you will think me troublesome in my offer; but have you the second
German edition of the "Origin?" which is a translation, with additions,
of the third English edition, and is, I think, considerably improved
compared with the first edition. I have some spare copies which are of
no use to me, and it would be a pleasure to me to send you one, if it
would be of any use to you. You would never require to re-read the book,
but you might wish to refer to some passage. I am particularly obliged
for your photograph, for one likes to have a picture in one's mind of
any one about whom one is interested. I have received and read with
interest your paper on the sponge with horny spicula. (188/1. "Ueber
Darwinella aurea, einen Schwamm mit sternformigen Hornnadeln."--"Archiv.
Mikrosk. Anat." I., page 57, 1866.) Owing to ill-health, and being
busy when formerly well, I have for some years neglected periodical
scientific literature, and have lately been reading up, and have thus
read translations of several of your papers; amongst which I have been
particularly glad to read and see the drawings of the metamorphoses
of Peneus. (188/2. "On the Metamorphoses of the Prawns," by Dr. Fritz
Muller.--"Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist." Volume XIV., page 104 (with plate),
1864. Translated by W.S. Dallas from "Wiegmann's Archiv," 1863 (see also
"Facts and Arguments for Darwin," passim, translated by W.S. Dallas:
London, 1869).) This seems to me the most interesting discovery in
embryology which has been made for years.
I am much obliged to you for telling me a little of your plans for the
future; what a strange, but to my taste interesting life you will lead
when you retire to your estate on the Itajahy!
You refer in your letter to the facts which Agassiz is collecting,
against our views, on the Amazons. Though he has done so much for
science, he seems to me so wild and paradoxical in all his views that I
cannot regard his opinions as of any value.
LETTER 189. TO A.R. WALLACE. Down, January 22nd, 1866.
I thank you for your paper on pigeons (189/1. "On the Pigeons of the
Malay Archipelago" (The "Ibis," October, 1865). Mr. Wallace points out
(page 366) that "the most striking superabundance of pigeons, as well
as of parrots, is confined to the Australo-Malayan sub-region in
which...the forest-haunting and fruit-eating mammals, such as monkeys
and squirrels, are totally absent." He points out also that monkeys are
"exceedingly destructive to eggs and young birds."), which interested
me, as everything that you write does. Who would ever have dreamed that
monkeys influenced the distribution of pigeons and parrots! But I have
had a still higher satisfaction, for I finished your paper yesterday in
the "Linnean Transactions." (189/2. "Linn. Soc. Trans." XXV.: a paper
on the geographical distribution and variability of the Malayan
Papilionidae.) It is admirably done. I cannot conceive that the most
firm believer in species could read it without being staggered. Such
papers will make many more converts among naturalists than long-winded
books such as I shall write if I have strength. I have been particularly
struck with your remarks on dimorphism; but I cannot quite understand
one point (page 22), (189/3. The passage referred to in this letter as
needing further explanation is the following: "The last six cases of
mimicry are especially instructive, because they seem to indicate one of
the processes by which dimorphic forms have been produced. When, as in
these cases, one sex differs much from the other, and varies greatly
itself, it may happen that individual variations will occasionally
occur, having a distant resemblance to groups which are the objects
of mimicry, and which it is therefore advantageous to resemble. Such
a variety will have a better chance of preservation; the individuals
possessing it will be multiplied; and their accidental likeness to the
favoured group will be rendered permanent by hereditary transmission,
and each successive variation which increases the resemblance being
preserved, and all variations departing from the favoured type having
less chance of preservation, there will in time result those singular
cases of two or more isolated and fixed forms bound together by that
intimate relationship which constitutes them the sexes of a single
species. The reason why the females are more subject to this kind of
modification than the males is, probably, that their slower flight,
when laden with eggs, and their exposure to attack while in the act of
depositing their eggs upon leaves, render it especially advantageous
for them to have some additional protection. This they at once obtain
by acquiring a resemblance to other species which, from whatever cause,
enjoy a comparative immunity from persecution." Mr. Wallace has been
good enough to give us the following note on the above passage: "The
above quotation deals solely with the question of how certain females
of the polymorphic species (Papilio Memnon, P. Pammon, and others) have
been so modified as to mimic species of a quite distinct section of
the genus; but it does not attempt to explain why or how the other very
variable types of female arose, and this was Darwin's difficulty. As
the letter I wrote in reply is lost, and as it is rather difficult to
explain the matter clearly without reference to the coloured figures,
I must go into some little detail, and give now what was probably the
explanation I gave at the time. The male of Papilio Memnon is a large
black butterfly with the nervures towards the margins of the wings
bordered with bluish gray dots. It is a forest insect, and the very
dark colour renders it conspicuous; but it is a strong flier, and thus
survives. To the female, however, this conspicuous mass of colour
would be dangerous, owing to her slower flight, and the necessity for
continually resting while depositing her eggs on the leaves of the
food-plant of the larva. She has accordingly acquired lighter and more
varied tints. The marginal gray-dotted stripes of the male have become
of a brownish ash and much wider on the fore wings, while the margin
of the hind wings is yellowish, with a more defined spot near the
anal angle. This is the form most nearly like the male, but it is
comparatively rare, the more common being much lighter in colour, the
bluish gray of the hind wings being often entirely replaced by a broad
band of yellowish white. The anal angle is orange-yellow, and there is
a bright red spot at the base of the fore wings. Between these two
extremes there is every possible variation. Now, it is quite certain
that this varying mixture of brown, black, white, yellow, and red is far
less conspicuous amid the ever-changing hues of the forest with their
glints of sunshine everywhere penetrating so as to form strong contrasts
and patches of light and shade. Hence ALL the females--one at one time
and one at another--get SOME protection, and that is sufficient to
enable them to live long enough to lay their eggs, when their work is
finished. Still, under bad conditions they only just managed to
survive, and as the colouring of some of these varying females very
much resembled that of the protected butterflies of the P. coon
group (perhaps at a time when the tails of the latter were not fully
developed) any rudiments of a prolongation of the wing into a tail added
to the protective resemblance, and was therefore preserved. The woodcuts
of some of these forms in my "Malay Archipelago" (i., page 200) will
enable those who have this book at hand better to understand the
foregoing explanation."), and should be grateful for an explanation, for
I want fully to understand you. How can one female form be selected and
the intermediate forms die out, without also the other extreme form also
dying out from not having the advantages of the first selected form?
for, as I understand, both female forms occur on the same island. I
quite agree with your distinction between dimorphic forms and varieties;
but I doubt whether your criterion of dimorphic forms not producing
intermediate offspring will suffice, for I know of a good many varieties
which must be so called that will not blend or intermix, but produce
offspring quite like either parent.
I have been particularly struck with your remarks on geographical
distribution in Celebes. It is impossible that anything could be better
put, and would give a cold shudder to the immutable naturalists.
And now I am going to ask a question which you will not like. How does
your journal get on? It will be a shame if you do not popularise your
researches.
LETTER 190. A.R. WALLACE TO CHARLES DARWIN. Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, July
2nd, 1866.
I have been so repeatedly struck by the utter inability of numbers
of intelligent persons to see clearly, or at all, the self-acting and
necessary effects of Natural Selection, that I am led to conclude that
the term itself, and your mode of illustrating it, however clear and
beautiful to many of us, are yet not the best adapted to impress it
on the general naturalist public. The two last cases of the
misunderstanding are: (1) the article on "Darwin and his Teachings" in
the last "Quarterly Journal of Science," which, though very well written
and on the whole appreciative, yet concludes with a charge of something
like blindness, in your not seeing that Natural Selection requires the
constant watching of an intelligent "chooser," like man's selection to
which you so often compare it; and (2) in Janet's recent work on the
"Materialism of the Present Day," reviewed in last Saturday's "Reader,"
by an extract from which I see that he considers your weak point to be
that you do not see that "thought and direction are essential to the
action of Natural Selection." The same objection has been made a score
of times by your chief opponents, and I have heard it as often stated
myself in conversation. Now, I think this arises almost entirely from
your choice of the term "Natural Selection" and so constantly comparing
it in its effects to Man's Selection, and also your so frequently
personifying nature as "selecting," as "preferring," as "seeking only
the good of the species," etc., etc. To the few this is as clear as
daylight, and beautifully suggestive, but to many it is evidently a
stumbling-block. I wish, therefore, to suggest to you the possibility
of entirely avoiding this source of misconception in your great work (if
not now too late), and also in any future editions of the "Origin,"
and I think it may be done without difficulty and very effectually
by adopting Spencer's term (which he generally uses in preference to
Natural Selection)--viz., "survival of the fittest."
This term is the plain expression of the fact; Natural Selection is
a metaphorical expression of it, and to a certain degree indirect and
incorrect, since, even personifying Nature, she does not so much select
special variations as exterminate the most unfavourable ones.
Combined with the enormous multiplying powers of all organisms, and the
"struggle for existence" leading to the constant destruction of by far
the largest proportion--facts which no one of your opponents, as far as
I am aware, has denied or misunderstood--"the survival of the fittest"
rather than of those who were less fit could not possibly be denied or
misunderstood. Neither would it be possible to say that to ensure the
"survival of the fittest" any intelligent chooser was necessary; whereas
when you say Natural Selection acts so as to choose those that are
fittest, it IS misunderstood, and apparently always will be. Referring
to your book, I find such expressions as "Man selects only for his
own good; Nature only for that of the being which she tends." This, it
seems, will always be misunderstood; but if you had said "Man selects
only for his own good; Nature, by the inevitable 'survival of the
fittest,' only for that of the being she tends," it would have been less
liable to be so.
I find you use the term "Natural Selection" in two senses: (1) for
the simple preservation of favourable and rejection of unfavourable
variations, in which case it is equivalent to "survival of the fittest";
and (2) for the effect or change produced by this preservation, as when
you say, "To sum up the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to
Natural Selection," and again, "Isolation, also, is an important element
in the process of Natural Selection." Here it is not merely "survival
of the fittest," but change produced by survival of the fittest, that
is meant. On looking over your fourth chapter, I find that these
alterations of terms can be in most cases easily made, while in some
cases the addition of "or survival of the fittest" after "Natural
Selection" would be best; and in others, less likely to be
misunderstood, the original term may stand alone.
I could not venture to propose to any other person so great an
alteration of terms, but you, I am sure, will give it an impartial
consideration, and if you really think the change will produce a better
understanding of your work, will not hesitate to adopt it.
It is evidently also necessary not to personify "Nature" too
much--though I am very apt to do it myself--since people will not
understand that all such phrases are metaphors. Natural Selection is,
when understood, so necessary and self-evident a principle, that it is a
pity it should be in any way obscured; and it therefore seems to me
that the free use of "survival of the fittest," which is a compact and
accurate definition of it, would tend much to its being more widely
accepted, and prevent it being so much misrepresented and misunderstood.
There is another objection made by Janet which is also a very common
one. It is that the chances are almost infinite against the particular
kind of variation required being coincident with each change of external
conditions, to enable an animal to become modified by Natural Selection
in harmony with such changed conditions; especially when we consider
that, to have produced the almost infinite modifications of organic
beings, this coincidence must have taken place an almost infinite number
of times.
Now, it seems to me that you have yourself led to this objection being
made, by so often stating the case too strongly against yourself. For
example, at the commencement of Chapter IV. you ask if it is "improbable
that useful variations should sometimes occur in the course of thousands
of generations"; and a little further on you say, "unless profitable
variations do occur, Natural Selection can do nothing." Now, such
expressions have given your opponents the advantage of assuming that
favourable variations are rare accidents, or may even for long periods
never occur at all, and thus Janet's argument would appear to many to
have great force. I think it would be better to do away with all such
qualifying expressions, and constantly maintain (what I certainly
believe to be the fact) that variations of every kind are always
occurring in every part of every species, and therefore that favourable
variations are always ready when wanted. You have, I am sure, abundant
materials to prove this; and it is, I believe, the grand fact that
renders modification and adaptation to conditions almost always
possible. I would put the burthen of proof on my opponents to show that
any one organ, structure, or faculty does not vary, even during one
generation, among all the individuals of a species; and also to show any
mode or way in which any such organ, etc., does not vary. I would ask
them to give any reason for supposing that any organ, etc., is ever
absolutely identical at any one time in all the individuals of a
species, and if not then it is always varying, and there are always
materials which, from the simple fact that "the fittest survive,"
will tend to the modification of the race into harmony with changed
conditions.
I hope these remarks may be intelligible to you, and that you will be so
kind as to let me know what you think of them.
I have not heard for some time how you are getting on. I hope you are
still improving in health, and that you will now be able to get on with
your great work, for which so many thousands are looking with interest.
LETTER 191. TO A.R. WALLACE.
(191/1. From "Life and Letters," III., page 45.)
Down, July 5th [1866].
I have been much interested by your letter, which is as clear as
daylight. I fully agree with all that you say on the advantages of H.
Spencer's excellent expression of "the survival of the fittest."
This, however, had not occurred to me till reading your letter. It is,
however, a great objection to this term that it cannot be used as a
substantive governing a verb; and that this is a real objection I
infer from H. Spencer continually using the words Natural Selection. I
formerly thought, probably in an exaggerated degree, that it was a great
advantage to bring into connection natural and artificial selection;
this indeed led me to use a term in common, and I still think it some
advantage. I wish I had received your letter two months ago, for I would
have worked in "the survival," etc., often in the new edition of the
"Origin," which is now almost printed off, and of which I will of
course send you a copy. I will use the term in my next book on domestic
animals, etc., from which, by the way, I plainly see that you expect
MUCH too much. The term Natural Selection has now been so largely used
abroad and at home that I doubt whether it could be given up, and with
all its faults I should be sorry to see the attempt made. Whether it
will be rejected must now depend "on the survival of the fittest." As in
time the term must grow intelligible the objections to its use will grow
weaker and weaker. I doubt whether the use of any term would have made
the subject intelligible to some minds, clear as it is to others; for
do we not see even to the present day Malthus on Population absurdly
misunderstood? This reflection about Malthus has often comforted me when
I have been vexed at this misstatement of my views. As for M. Janet, he
is a metaphysician, and such gentlemen are so acute that I think they
often misunderstand common folk. Your criticism on the double sense in
which I have used Natural Selection is new to me and unanswerable;
but my blunder has done no harm, for I do not believe that any one,
excepting you, has ever observed it. Again, I agree that I have said too
much about "favourable variations," but I am inclined to think that you
put the opposite side too strongly: if every part of every being varied,
I do not think we should see the same end or object gained by such
wonderfully diversified means.
I hope you are enjoying the country, and are in good health, and are
working hard at your "Malay Archipelago" book, for I will always put
this wish in every note I write to you, as some good people always put
in a text. My health keeps much the same, or rather improves, and I am
able to work some hours daily.
LETTER 192. TO C. LYELL. Down, October 9th [1866].
One line to say that I have received your note and the proofs safely,
and will read them with the greatest pleasure; but I am certain I shall
not be able to send any criticism on the astronomical chapter (192/1.
"Principles of Geology," by Sir Charles Lyell; Edition X., London, 1867.