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a chapter. I can only say here that the writer has not a sufficient grasp of the elementary laws of distribution to enable him to grapple with the subject. One example of this will suffice. He says, "Plants are not, as a fact, carried far by wind, Corsican, Sardinian, and Sicilian plants not occurring in Italy." No one who understands the first principles of evolution by natural selection could have made such a statement. And as to his alleged "fact," I have given overwhelming evidence against it in my book.

Mr. Darwin informs me, however, that he thinks the great German botanist, Engler, is favourable to my views; but what is very much more important is that Sir Joseph Hooker himself accepts them, and I have his permission (February, 1905) to quote the following passages referring to the whole book, from a letter written in 1880, and to say that he has not changed his opinion :—

"I think you have made an immense advance to our knowledge of the ways and means of distribution, and bridged many great gaps. Your reasoning seems to me to be sound throughout, though I am not prepared to receive it in all its details."

And again: "I very much like your whole working of the problem of the isolation and connection of New Zealand and Australia inter se, and with the countries north of them; and the whole treatment of that respecting north and south migration over the Globe is admirable."

For those who have not my "Island Life," there is a compact statement of the whole argument in my "Darwinism," pp. 361-373.

9. In 1881 I put forth the first idea of mouth-gesture as a factor in the origin of language, in a review of E. P. Tylor's Anthropology," and in 1895 I extended it into an article in the Fortnightly Review, and reprinted it with a few further corrections in my "Studies," under the title, "The Expressiveness of Speech or Mouth-Gesture as a Factor in the Origin of Language." In it I have developed a completely new principle in the theory of the origin of language by showing

that every motion of the jaws, lips, and tongue, together with inward or outward breathing, and especially the mute or liquid consonants ending words which serve to indicate abrupt or continuous motion, have corresponding meanings in so many cases as to show a fundamental connection. I thus enormously extend the principle of onomatopoiæ in the origin of vocal language. As I have been unable to find any reference to this important factor in the origin of language, and as no competent writer has pointed out any fallacy in it, I think I am justified in supposing it to be new and important. Mr. Gladstone informed me that there were many thousands of illustrations of my ideas in Homer.

10. In 1890 I published in the Fortnightly Review an article on "Human Selection," and in 1892 (in the Boston Arena) one on "Human Progress, Past and Future." These deal with different aspects of the same great problem-the gradual improvement of the race by natural process; and they were also written partly for the purpose of opposing the various artificial processes of selection advocated by several English and American writers. I showed that the only method of advance for us, as for the lower animals, is in some form of natural selection, and that the only mode of natural selection that can act alike on physical, mental, and moral qualities will come into play under a social system which gives equal opportunities of culture, training, leisure, and happiness to every individual. This extension of the principle of natural selection as it acts in the animal world generally is, I believe, quite new, and is by far the most important of the new ideas I have given to the world.

A short summary of these papers appears in my thirtythird chapter; but every one interested in the deepest social problems should read the articles themselves (in my "Studies"), which give a very condensed statement of the whole argument.

II. In an article on "The Glacial Erosion of Lake Basins" (in the Fortnightly Review, December, 1893), I brought

together the whole of the evidence bearing upon the question, and adduced a completely new argument for this mode of origin of the valley lakes of glaciated countries. This is founded on their surface and bottom contours, both of which are shown to be such as would necessarily arise from iceaction, while they would not arise from the other alleged mode of origin―unequal elevation or subsidence.

12. In a new edition of "Stanford's Compendium, Australasia,” vol. i., when describing the physical and mental characteristics of the Australian aborigines, I stated my belief that they were really a low and perhaps primitive type of the Caucasian race. I further developed the subject in my "Studies," and illustrated it by photographs of Australians and Ainos, of the Veddahs of Ceylon, and of the Khmers of Cambodia-all outlying members of the same great human race. This, I think, is an important simplification in the classification of the races of man.

Bees' cells.-But besides these more important scientific principles or ideas, there are a few minor ones which are of sufficient interest to be briefly mentioned. In the article on the "Bees' Cell" (referred to in Chapter XXVIII.), I called attention to a circumstance that had been, I think, unnoticed by all previous writers. An immense deal of ingenuity and of mathematical skill had been expended in showing that the two layers of hexagonal cells, with basal dividing-plates inclined at a particular angle, gave the greatest economy of space and of material possible; and the instinct of the bees in building such a comb to contain their store of honey was held to show that it was a divinely bestowed special faculty. But all these writers omitted to take into account one fact, which shows their whole argument to be fallacious. This is, that the combs are suspended vertically, and that when full of honey the upper rows of cells have to support at least ten times as much weight as the lowest rows. But there is no corresponding difference in the thickness of the walls of the cells; so that, as the upper rows are strong enough, the lower

must be quite unnecessarily strong, and there is thus a great waste of wax. The whole conception of a supernatural faculty for the purpose of economizing wax is thus shown to be fallacious. Darwin's explanation entirely obviates this difficulty, since it depends on the bees possessing intelligence enough to reduce all the cell walls to a nearly uniform thickness, being that which is sufficient under all circumstances to support the weight of the whole mass of comb and honey.

The supposed "homing" instinct of dogs, etc.-In the year 1873 one of the many discussions on this subject took place in Nature. I had suggested the immense importance of the sense of smell in enabling dogs to find their way back along a route they had been carried in a basket or covered cart; but, of course, there are cases which this will not explain. I gave a summing up of the whole subject, and added a new and very remarkable case which happened to my friend Dr. Purland, whose amusing letters I have given in Chapter XXVIII. This case is as follows:

"My friend lost a favourite little dog when he was living in Long Acre. Three months afterwards he removed to a house in another street about half a mile distant-a place he had not contemplated going to, or even seen, before the loss of the dog. Two months later (five months after the loss of the dog) a scratching was heard at the front door, and on opening it the dog rushed in, having found out its master in the new house. My friend was so astonished that he went next day to Long Acre to an acquaintance who lived nearly opposite the old house (then empty), and told him his little dog had come back. 'Oh,' said this person, 'I saw the dog myself yesterday. He scratched at your door, barked a good deal, then went to the middle of the street, turned round several times, and started off towards where you now live.' My friend cannot tell how much time elapsed between the dog's leaving the old and arriving at the new house. If every movement of this dog could have been watched from one door to the other, much might have been learnt. Could it have

obtained information from other dogs? Could the odour of persons and furniture linger two months in the streets?"

It is evident that at least twelve hours were occupied in finding the new place, leaving time for a good deal of trial and error. One suggestion now occurs to me. There was a rather circuitous omnibus route leading from Long Acre to very near the new house. The dog may have often seen its master travelling in a 'bus, and may even have gone with some of the family. He may, therefore, have followed the 'bus route, seeking all the way for indications, till at last he crossed the recent track of his master or of some other member of the family, and by scent followed it up to the door. The following passage concludes my letter to Nature:

"I venture to hope that some persons having means and leisure will experiment on this subject in the same careful and thorough way that Mr. Spalding experimented with his fowls. The animal's previous history must be known and recorded; a sufficient number of experiments, at various distances and under different conditions, must be made; and a person of intelligence and activity must keep the animal in sight, and note down its every action till it arrives home. If this is done, I feel sure that a satisfactory theory will soon be arrived at, and much of, if not all, the mystery that now attaches to this class of facts be removed." This suggestion I have made several times during the last thirty years, but I cannot learn that any one has yet carried it out. It is strange that while thousands of dogs' lives are sacrificed annually to establish some minute point in physiology, no one can be found to carry out a few pleasurable and interesting experiments to ascertain in what manner and by the use of what faculties lost animals habitually find their way home.

An analogous problem to this is that of the migration of birds, which also has been almost always imputed to some special instinct or peculiar faculty other than that of the ordinary senses. On this question I wrote to Nature as follows (October 8, 1874): "It appears to me probable that here, as in so many other cases, 'survival of the fittest' will be found to have had a powerful influence. Let us suppose

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