tion of _obscurum per {23}
obscurius_.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II.

THE INCOMPETENCY OF "NATURAL SELECTION" TO ACCOUNT FOR THE INCIPIENT STAGES
OF USEFUL STRUCTURES.

Mr. Darwin supposes that natural selection acts by slight
variations.--These must be useful at once.--Difficulties as to the
giraffe; as to mimicry; as to the heads of flat-fishes; as to the
origin and constancy of the vertebrate limbs; as to whalebone; as to
the young kangaroo; as to sea-urchins; as to certain processes of
metamorphosis; as to the mammary gland; as to certain ape characters;
as to the rattlesnake and cobra; as to the process of formation of the
eye and ear; as to the fully developed condition of the eye and ear; as
to the voice; as to shell-fish; as to orchids; as to ants.--The
necessity for the simultaneous modification of many
individuals.--Summary and conclusion.

"Natural Selection," simply and by itself, is potent to explain the
maintenance or the further extension and development of favourable
variations, which are at once sufficiently considerable to be useful from
the first to the individual possessing them. But Natural Selection utterly
fails to account for the conservation and development of the minute and
rudimentary beginnings, the slight and infinitesimal commencements of
structures, however useful those structures may afterwards become.

Now, it is distinctly enunciated by Mr. Darwin, that the spontaneous
variations upon which his theory depends are individually slight, minute,
and insensible. He says,[15] "Slight individual differences, however, {24}
suffice for the work, and are probably the sole differences which are
effective in the production of new species." And again, after mentioning
the frequent sudden appearances of domestic varieties, he speaks of "the
false belief as to the similarity of natural species in this respect."[16]
In his work on the "Origin of Species," he also observes, "Natural
Selection acts only by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited
modifications."[17] And "Natural Selection, if it be a true principle, will
banish the belief ... of any great and sudden modification in their
structure."[18] Finally, he adds, "If it could be demonstrated that any
complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by
numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely
break down.