gin of a
wild species by any process whatever; and if a species were to come
suddenly into being in the wild state, as the Ancon Sheep did under
domestication, how could you ascertain the fact? If the first of a
newly-begotten species were found, the fact of its discovery would tell
nothing about its origin. Naturalists would register it as a very rare
species, having been only once met with, but they would have no means of
knowing whether it were the first or the last of its race."

To this Mr. Wallace has replied (in his review of Mr. Murphy's work in
_Nature_[96]), by objecting that sudden changes could very rarely be
useful, because each kind of animal is a nicely balanced and adjusted
whole, any one sudden modification of which would in most cases be hurtful
unless accompanied by other simultaneous and harmonious modifications. If,
however, it is not unlikely that there is an innate tendency to deviate at
certain times, and under certain conditions, it is no more unlikely that
that innate tendency should be an harmonious one, calculated to
simultaneously adjust the various parts of the organism to their new
relations. The objection as to the sudden abortion of rudimentary organs
may be similarly met.

Professor Huxley seems now disposed to accept the, at least {104}
occasional, intervention of sudden and considerable variations. In his
review of Professor Koelliker's[97] criticisms, he himself says,[98] "We
greatly suspect that she" (_i.e._ Nature) "does make considerable jumps in
the way of variation now and then, and that these saltations give rise to
some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of known forms."

[Illustration: MUCH ENLARGED HORIZONTAL SECTION OF THE TOOTH OF A
LABYRINTHODON.]

In addition to the instances brought forward in the second chapter against
the minute action of Natural Selection, may be mentioned such {105}
structures as the wonderfully folded teeth of the labyrinthodonts. The
marvellously complex structure of these organs is not merely unaccountable
as due to Natural "Selection," but its production by insignificant
increments of complexity is hardly less difficult to comprehend.

Similarly the aborted index of the Potto (_Perodicticus_) is a structure
not likely to have been induced by minute changes; while, as to "Natural
Selection," the reduction of the fore-finger to a mere rudiment is
inexplicable indeed! "How this mutilation can have aided in the str