The Foundations of the Origin of Species

I can find no reference to the transandantes sheep in Darwin’s published work. He was possibly led to doubt the accuracy of the statement on which he relied. For the case of the sheep returning to their birth-place see p. 17, note 4 (#cn_90).

292

Origin, Ed. i. p. 224, vi. p. 342.

293

This is an expansion of an obscure passage in the Essay of 1842, p. 19 (#FNanchor_94_94).

294

The difficulties discussed in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 171, vi. p. 207, are the rarity of transitional varieties, the origin of the tail of the giraffe; the otter-like polecat (Mustela vison); the flying habit of the bat; the penguin and the logger-headed duck; flying fish; the whale-like habit of the bear; the woodpecker; diving petrels; the eye; the swimming bladder; Cirripedes; neuter insects; electric organs.

Of these, the polecat, the bat, the woodpecker, the eye, the swimming bladder are discussed in the present Essay, and in addition some botanical problems.

295

In the Origin, Ed. vi. p. 275, the author replies to Mivart’s criticisms (Genesis of Species, 1871), referring especially to that writer’s objection “that natural selection is incompetent to account for the incipient stages of useful structures.”

296

«The following sentence seems to have been intended for insertion here» “and that each eye throughout the animal kingdom is not only most useful, but perfect for its possessor.”

297

Origin, Ed. i. p. 190, vi. p. 230.

298

This is one of the most definite statements in the present Essay of the possible importance of sports or what would now be called mutations. As is well known the author afterwards doubted whether species could arise in this way. See Origin, Ed. v. p. 103, vi. p. 110, also Life and Letters, vol. iii. p. 107.

299

See Origin, Ed. i. p. 210, vi. p. 322, where the question is discussed for the case of instincts with a proviso that the same argument applies to structure. It is briefly stated in its general bearing in Origin, Ed. i. p. 87, vi. p. 106.

300

«Note in original.» No one will dispute that the gliding is most useful, probably necessary for the species in question.

301

«Note in original.» Is this the Galeopithecus? I forget. «Galeopithecus “or the flying Lemur” is mentioned in the corresponding discussion in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 181, vi. p. 217, as formerly placed among the bats. I do not know why it is described as partly aquatic in its habits.»

302

In the Origin, Ed. vi. p. 221, the author modified the statement that it never climbs trees; he also inserted a sentence quoting Mr Hudson to the effect that in other districts this woodpecker climbs trees and bores holes. See Mr Darwin’s paper, Zoolog. Soc. Proc., 1870, and Life and Letters, iii. p. 153.

303

Note by the late Alfred Newton. Richardson in Fauna Boreali-Americana, i. p. 49.

304

«Note in original.» See Richardson a far better case of a polecat animal «Mustela vison», which half-year is aquatic. «Mentioned in Origin, Ed. i. p. 179, vi. p. 216.»

305

In the Origin the division of the work into Parts I and II is omitted. In the MS. the chapters of Part II are numbered afresh, the present being Ch. I of Pt. II. I have thought it best to call it Ch. IV and there is evidence that Darwin had some thought of doing the same. It corresponds to Ch. IX of Origin, Ed. i., Ch. X in Ed. vi.

306

In the Essay of 1842 the author uses astronomy in the same manner as an illustration. In the Origin this does not occur; the reference to the action of secondary causes is more general, e. g. Ed. i. p. 488, vi. p. 668.

307

It is interesting to find the argument from sterility given so prominent a place. In a corresponding passage in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 480, vi. p. 659, it is more summarily treated. The author gives, as the chief bar to the acceptance of evolution, the fact that “we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps”; and goes on to quote Lyell on geological action. It will be remembered that the question of sterility remained a difficulty for Huxley.

308

Similar statements occur in the Essay of 1842, p. 24, note 1, and in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 299.

309

In the Origin, Ed. i. p. 280, vi. p. 414 he uses his newly-acquired knowledge of pigeons to illustrate this point.

310

Compare the Origin, Ed. i. p. 281, vi. p. 414.

311

Origin, Ed. i. p. 301, vi. p. 440.

312

Origin, Ed. i. p. 329, vi. p. 471.

313

The structure of the Pachyderm leg was a favourite with the author. It is discussed in the Essay of 1842, p. 48. In the present Essay the following sentence in the margin appears to refer to Pachyderms and Ruminants: “There can be no doubt, if we banish all fossils, existing groups stand more separate.” The following occurs between the lines “The earliest forms would be such as others could radiate from.”

314

Origin, Ed. i. p. 307, vi. p. 448.

315

«Pencil insertion by the author.» The parent-forms of Mollusca would probably differ greatly from all recent, – it is not directly that any one division of Mollusca would descend from first time unaltered, whilst others had become metamorphosed from it.