s supposed to "murder "). At p. 391 he writes: "In the brain of the
lowest savages and, as far as we know, of the prehistoric races, we have
an organ ... little inferior in size and complexity to that of the
highest types.... But the mental requirements of the lowest savages,
such as the Australians or the Andaman Islanders, are very little above
those of many animals.... How then was an organ developed far beyond the
needs of its possessor? Natural Selection could only have endowed the
savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape, whereas he
actually possesses one but very little inferior to that of the average
members of our learned societies."

This passage is marked in Darwin's copy with a triply underlined "No,"
and with a shower of notes of exclamation. It was probably the first
occasion on which he realised the extent of this great and striking
divergence in opinion between himself and his colleague. He had,
however, some indication of it in Wallace's paper on Man in the
_Anthropological Review_, 1864, referred to in his letter to Wallace of
May 28, 1864, and again in that of April 14, 1869.

_Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March 27, 1869._

My dear Wallace,--I must send a line to thank you, but this note will
require no answer. This very morning after writing I found that "elk"
was used for "moose" in Sweden, but I had been reading lately about elk
and moose in North America.

As you put the case in your letter, which I think differs somewhat from
your book, I am inclined to agree, and had thought that a feather could
hardly be increased in length until it had first grown to full length,
and therefore it would be increased late in life and transmitted to a
corresponding age. But the Crossoptilon pheasant, and even the common
pheasant, show that the tail feathers can be developed very early.

Thanks for other facts, which I will reflect on when I go again over my
MS.

I read all that you said about the Dutch Government with much interest,
but I do not feel I know enough to form any opinion against yours.

I shall be intensely curious to read the _Quarterly_: I hope you have
not murdered too completely your own and my child.

I have lately, i.e. in the new edition of the "Origin,"[79] been
moderating my zeal, and attributing much more to mere useless
variability. I did think I would send you the sheet, but I daresay you
would not care to see it, in which I discuss Naegeli's essay on Natural
Select