The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection (6th ed) | Page 5

animals by selection; and then,
he adds, but what is done in this latter case "by art, seems to be done

with equal efficacy, though more slowly, by nature, in the formation of
varieties of mankind, fitted for the country which they inhabit. Of the
accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first few and
scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa, some one would
be better fitted than others to bear the diseases of the country. This race
would consequently multiply, while the others would decrease; not
only from their in ability to sustain the attacks of disease, but from their
incapacity of contending with their more vigorous neighbours. The
colour of this vigorous race I take for granted, from what has been
already said, would be dark. But the same disposition to form varieties
still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time
occur: and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this
would at length become the most prevalent, if not the only race, in the
particular country in which it had originated." He then extends these
same views to the white inhabitants of colder climates. I am indebted to
Mr. Rowley, of the United States, for having called my attention,
through Mr. Brace, to the above passage of Dr. Wells' work.
The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, afterward Dean of Manchester, in the
fourth volume of the "Horticultural Transactions", 1822, and in his
work on the "Amaryllidaceae" (1837, pages 19, 339), declares that
"horticultural experiments have established, beyond the possibility of
refutation, that botanical species are only a higher and more permanent
class of varieties." He extends the same view to animals. The dean
believes that single species of each genus were created in an originally
highly plastic condition, and that these have produced, chiefly by
inter-crossing, but likewise by variation, all our existing species.
In 1826 Professor Grant, in the concluding paragraph in his
well-known paper ("Edinburgh Philosophical Journal", vol. XIV, page
283) on the Spongilla, clearly declares his belief that species are
descended from other species, and that they become improved in the
course of modification. This same view was given in his Fifty-fifth
Lecture, published in the "Lancet" in 1834.
In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on "Naval Timber and
Arboriculture", in which he gives precisely the same view on the origin

of species as that (presently to be alluded to) propounded by Mr.
Wallace and myself in the "Linnean Journal", and as that enlarged in
the present volume. Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew
very briefly in scattered passages in an appendix to a work on a
different subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew
himself drew attention to it in the "Gardeners' Chronicle", on April 7,
1860. The differences of Mr. Matthew's views from mine are not of
much importance: he seems to consider that the world was nearly
depopulated at successive periods, and then restocked; and he gives as
an alternative, that new forms may be generated "without the presence
of any mold or germ of former aggregates." I am not sure that I
understand some passages; but it seems that he attributes much
influence to the direct action of the conditions of life. He clearly saw,
however, the full force of the principle of natural selection.
The celebrated geologist and naturalist, Von Buch, in his excellent
"Description Physique des Isles Canaries" (1836, page 147), clearly
expresses his belief that varieties slowly become changed into
permanent species, which are no longer capable of intercrossing.
Rafinesque, in his "New Flora of North America", published in 1836,
wrote (page 6) as follows: "All species might have been varieties once,
and many varieties are gradually becoming species by assuming
constant and peculiar characters;" but further on (page 18) he adds,
"except the original types or ancestors of the genus."
In 1843-44 Professor Haldeman ("Boston Journal of Nat. Hist. U.
States", vol. iv, page 468) has ably given the arguments for and against
the hypothesis of the development and modification of species: he
seems to lean toward the side of change.
The "Vestiges of Creation" appeared in 1844. In the tenth and much
improved edition (1853) the anonymous author says (page 155): "The
proposition determined on after much consideration is, that the several
series of animated beings, from the simplest and oldest up to the
highest and most recent, are, under the providence of God, the results,
FIRST, of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life,
advancing them, in definite times, by generation, through grades of

organisation terminating in the highest dicotyledons and vertebrata,
these grades being few in number, and generally marked by intervals of
organic character, which we find to be a practical