We have here no action of "Natural Selection;" it was not that certain puppies happened accidentally to be capable of enduring more rarefied air, and so survived, but the offspring were directly modified by the action of surrounding conditions. Neither was the change elaborated by minute modifications in many successive generations, but appeared at once in the second. Further, with regard to sudden alterations of form, Nathusius is said to state positively as to pigs,' that the result of common experience and of his experiments was that rich and abundant food, given during youth, tends by some direct action to make the head broader and shorter. Curious jaw appendages often characterize Normandy pigs, according to M. Eudes Deslongchamps. Richardson figures these appendages on the old "Irish greyhound pig," and they are said by Nathusius to appear occasionally in all the long-eared races. Mr. Darwin observes,2 "As no wild pigs are known to have analogous appendages, we have at present no reason to suppose that their appearance is due to reversion; and if this be so, we are forced to admit that somewhat complex, though apparently useless structures may be suddenly developed without the aid of selection." Again, "Climate directly affects the thickness those of the men on the high plateau; whilst their femora had become somewhat lengthened, as had their tibiæ, but in a less degree." Here the rapidity of the change-only two generations-points rather to a direct action of conditions than to that of "Natural Selection." In favour of direct modification, another passage from Mr. Darwin may be quoted. He says, "In young persons whose heads from disease have become fixed either sideways or backways, one of the eyes has changed its position, and the bones of the skull have been modified."-Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 147. 1 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 72. 2 Ibid. p. 76. 3 In the English climate 4 of the skin and hair" of cattle.1 an individual Porto Santo rabbit 2 recovered the proper colour of its fur in rather less than four years. The effect of the climate of India on the turkey is considerable. Mr. Blyth describes that bird as being much degenerated in size, "utterly incapable of rising on the wing," of a black colour, and "with long pendulous appendages over the beak enormously developed." Mr. Darwin again tells us that there has suddenly appeared in a bed of common broccoli a peculiar variety, faithfully transmitting its newly acquired and remarkable characters; also that there has been a rapid transformation of American varieties of maize; 5 that certainly "the Ancon and Manchamp breeds of sheep," and that (all but certainly) Niata cattle, turnspit and pug dogs, jumper and frizzled fowls, short-faced tumbler pigeons, hook-billed ducks, &c., and a multitude of vegetable varieties, have suddenly appeared in nearly the same state as we now see them." Lastly, Mr. Darwin tells us, that there has been an occasional development (in five distinct cases) in England of the "japanned" or "black-shouldered peacock" (Pavo nigripennis); a distinct species, according to Dr. Sclater,7 yet arising in Sir J. Trevelyan's flock composed entirely of the common kind, and increasing, "to the extinction of the previously existing breed." Mr. Darwin's only explanation of the phenomenon (on the supposition of the species being distinct) is by reversion, owing to a supposed 1 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 71. 86 Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 291. I ancestral cross. But he candidly admits, "I have heard of no other such case in the animal or vegetable kingdom." On the hypothesis of its being only a variety, he observes, "The case is the most remarkable ever recorded of the abrupt appearance of a new form, which so closely resembles a true species that it has deceived one of the most experienced of living ornithologists." As to plants, M. C. Naudin1 has given the following instances of the sudden origination of apparently permanent forms: "The first case mentioned is that of a poppy, which took on a remarkable variation in its fruit- -a crown of secondary capsules being added to the normal central capsule. A field of such poppies was grown, and M. Göppert, with seed from this field, obtained still this monstrous form in great quantity. Deformities of ferns are sometimes sought after by fern-growers. They are now always obtained by taking spores from the abnormal parts of the monstrous fern; from which spores ferns presenting the same peculiarities invariably grow. . . . . The most remarkable case is that observed by Dr. Godron, of Nancy. In 1861 that botanist observed, amongst a sowing of Datura tatula, the fruits of which are very spinous, a single individual of which the capsule was perfectly smooth. The seeds taken from this plant all furnished plants having the character of this individual. The fifth and sixth generations are now growing without exhibiting the least tendency to revert to the spinous form. remarkablestill, when crossed with the normal Datura tatula, hybrids were produced, which, in the 1 Extracted by J. J. Murphy, vol. i. p. 197, from the Quarterly Journal of Science, of October 1867, p. 527. second generation, reverted to the original types, as true hybrids do.” 1 There are, then, abundant instances to prove that considerable modifications may suddenly develop themselves, either due to external conditions or to obscure internal causes in the organisms which exhibit them. Moreover, these modifications, from whatever cause arising, are capable of reproduction—the modified individuals “breeding true." The question is whether new species have been developed by non-fortuitous variations which are insignificant and minute, or whether such variations have been comparatively sudden and of appreciable size and importance? Either hypothesis will suit the views here maintained equally well (those views being opposed only to fortuitous indefinite variations), but the latter is the more remote from the Darwinian conception, and yet has much to be said in its favour. Professor Owen considers, with regard to specific origination, that natural history "teaches that the change would be sudden and considerable: it opposes the idea that species are transmitted by minute and slow degrees." 2 An innate tendency to deviate from parental type, operating through periods of adequate duration," being 1 In confirmation of the suddenness of occasional changes, a remark recently made by Mr. Darwin should be quoted. He says: "It is also well to reflect on such facts as the wonderful growth of galls on plants caused by the poison of an insect, and on the remarkable changes of colour in the plumage of parrots when fed on certain fishes, or inoculated with the poison of toads; for we can thus see that the fluids of the system, if altered for some special purpose, might induce other strange changes." -Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 152. "the most probable nature, or way of operation of the secondary law, whereby species have been derived one from the other." 1 Now, considering the number of instances adduced of sudden modifications in domestic animals, it is somewhat startling to meet with Mr. Darwin's positive assertion that it is "a false belief" that natural species have often originated in the same abrupt manner. The belief may be false, but it is difficult to see how its falsehood can be positively asserted. It is demonstrated by Mr. Darwin's careful weighings and measurements, that, though little used parts in domestic animals get reduced in weight and somewhat in size, yet that they show no inclination to become truly "rudimentary structures." Accordingly, he asserts,2 that such rudimentary parts are formed "suddenly, by arrest of development" in domesticated animals, but in wild animals slowly. The latter assertion however is a mere assertion; necessary perhaps for the theory of "Natural Selection," but as yet unproved by facts. But why should not these changes take place suddenly in a state of nature? As Mr. Murphy says:3 "It may be true that we have no evidence of the origin of wild species in this way. But this is not a case in which negative evidence proves anything. We have never witnessed the origin of a wild species by any process whatever; and if a species were to come suddenly into being in the wild state, as the Ancon Sheep did under domestication, how could you ascertain the fact? If the first of a newly 1 "Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. iii. p. 807. 2 "Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii. p. 318. |