ial variations had been transmitted to
the same sex alone. Believing in this, I can see no improbability (but
from analogy of domestic animals a strong probability): the variations
leading to beauty must _often_ have occurred in the males alone, and
been transmitted to that sex alone. Thus I should account in many cases
for the greater beauty of the male over the female, without the need of
the protective principle. I should be grateful for an answer on this
point.

I hope that your Eastern book progresses well.--My dear Wallace, yours
sincerely,

C. DARWIN.

* * * * *

Sir Clifford Allbutt's view, referred to in the following letter,
probably had reference to the fact that the sperm-cell goes, or is
carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. In this letter Darwin gives
the reason for the "law" referred to. Wallace has been good enough to
supply the following note (May 27, 1902): "It was at this time that my
paper on 'Protective Resemblance' first appeared in the _Westminster
Review_, in which I adduced the greater, or, rather, the more
continuous, importance of the female (in the lower animals) for the
race, and my 'Theory of Birds' Nests' (_Journal of Travel and Natural
History_, No. 2), in which I applied this to the usually dull colours of
female butterflies and birds. It is to these articles, as well as to my
letters, that Darwin chiefly refers."

_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. April 30, 1868._

My dear Wallace,--Your letter, like so many previous ones, has
interested me much. Dr. Allbutt's view occurred to me some time ago, and
I have written a short discussion on it. It is, I think, a remarkable
law, to which I have found no exception. The foundation lies in the fact
that in many cases the eggs or seeds require nourishment and protection
by the mother-form for some time after impregnation. Hence the
spermatozoa and antherozoids travel in the lower aquatic animals and
plants to the female, and pollen is borne to the female organ. As
organisms rise in the scale it seems natural that the male should carry
the spermatozoa to the females in his own body. As the male is the
searcher he has received and gained more eager passions than the female;
and, very differently from you, I look at this as _one_ great difficulty
in believing that the males select the more attractive females; as far
as I can discover they are always ready to seize on any female, and
sometimes on many females.