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I have heard from Tegetmeier, and have given him the result of my
crosses of the birds which he proposes to try, and have told him how
alone I think the experiment could be tried with the faintest hope of
success--namely, to get, if possible, a case of two birds which when
paired were unproductive, yet neither impotent. For instance, I had this
morning a letter with a case of a Hereford heifer, which seemed to be,
after repeated trials, sterile with one particular and far from impotent
bull, but not with another bull. But it is too long a story--it is to
attempt to make two strains, both fertile, and yet sterile when one
of one strain is crossed with one of the other strain. But the
difficulty...would be beyond calculation. As far as I see, Tegetmeier's
plan would simply test whether two existing breeds are now in any
slight degree sterile; which has already been largely tested: not that I
dispute the good of re-testing.
LETTER 155. TO HUGH FALCONER.
(155/1. The original letter is dated "December 10th," but this must, we
think, be a slip of the pen for January 10th. It contains a reference to
No. VI. of the "Lectures to Working Men" which, as Mr. Leonard Huxley
is good enough to inform us, was not delivered until December 15th, and
therefore could not have been seen by Mr. Darwin on December 10th. The
change of date makes comprehensible the reference to Falconer's paper
"On the American Fossil Elephant of the Regions bordering the Gulf of
Mexico (E. Columbi, Falc.)," which appeared in the January number of the
"Natural History Review." It is true that he had seen advanced sheets of
Falconer's paper ("Life and Letters," II., page 389), but the reference
here is to the complete paper.
In the present volume we have thought it right to give some expression
to the attitude of Darwin towards Owen. Professor Owen's biographer has
clearly felt the difficulty of making a statement on Owen's attitude
towards Darwinism, and has ("Life of Sir Richard Owen," Volume II., page
92) been driven to adopt the severe indictment contained in the "Origin
of Species," Edition VI., page xviii. Darwin was by no means alone in
his distrust of Owen; and to omit altogether a reference to the conduct
which led up to the isolation of Owen among his former friends and
colleagues would be to omit a part of the history of science of the
day. And since we cannot omit to notice Darwin's point of view, it seems
right to give the facts of a typical case illustrating the feeling
with which he regarded Owen. This is all the more necessary since the
recently published biography of Sir R. Owen gives no hint, as far as we
are aware, of even a difference of opinion with other scientific men.
The account which Falconer gives in the above-mentioned paper in the
"Nat. Hist. Review" (January, 1863) would be amusing if the matter were
less serious. In 1857 Falconer described ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc."
XIII.) a new species of fossil elephant from America, to which he gave
the name Elephas Columbi, a designation which was recognised and adopted
by Continental writers. In 1858 (Brit. Assoc. Leeds) Owen made use of
the name "Elephas texianus," Blake" for the species which Falconer
had previously named E. Columbi, but without referring to Falconer's
determination; he gave no authority, "thus by the established usage in
zoology producing it as his own." In 1861 Owen in his Palaeontology,
2nd edition, 1861, describes the elephant as E. texianus, Blake. To
Mr. Blake's name is appended an asterisk which refers to a footnote
to Bollaert's "Antiquities of S. America," 2nd edition. According to
Falconer (page 46) no second edition of Bollaert had appeared at the
time of writing (August, 1862), and in the first edition (1860) he
was "unable to detect the occurrence of the name even, of E. texianus,
anywhere throughout the volume"; though Bollaert mentions the fact that
he had deposited, in the British Museum, the tooth of a fossil elephant
from Texas.
In November, 1861, Blake wrote a paper in the "Geologist" in which the
new elephant no longer bears his own name as authority, but is described
as "Elephas texianus, Owen, E. Columbi, Falconer." Finally, in another
paper the name of Owen is dropped and the elephant is once more his own.
As Falconer remarks, "the usage of science does not countenance such
accommodating arrangements, when the result is to prejudice a prior
right."
It may be said, no doubt, that the question who first described a given
species is a petty one; but this view has a double edge, and
applies most strongly to those who neglect the just claims of their
predecessors.
Down, January 5th [1863].
I finished your Elephant paper last night, and you must let me express
my admiration at it. (155/2. "On the American Fossil Elephant of the
Regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico (E. Columbi, Falc.), etc." "Nat.
Hist. Rev." 1863, page 81. (Cf. Letter to Lyell. "Life and Letters,"
II., page 389; also "Origin," Edition VI., page 306.) See Letter 143.)
All the points strike me as admirably worked out, and very many
most interesting. I was particularly struck with your remarks on the
character of the ancient Mammalian Fauna of N. America (155/3. Falconer,
page 62. This passage is marked in Darwin's copy.); it agrees with all I
fancied was the case, namely a temporary irruption of S. American forms
into N. America, and conversely, I chuckled a little over the specimen
of M. Andium "hesitating" between the two groups. (155/4. In speaking of
the characters of Mastodon Andium, Falconer refers to a former paper
by himself ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume XIII. 1857, page 313),
in which he called attention "to the exceptional character of
certain specimens of M. Andium, as if hesitating between [the groups]
Tetralophodon and Trilophodon" (ibid., page 100).) I have been assured
by Mr. Wallace that abundant Mastodon remains have been found at Timor,
and that is rather close to Australia. I rejoice that you have smashed
that case. (155/5. In the paper in the "Nat. Hist. Review" (loc. cit.)
Falconer writes: "It seems more probable that some unintentional error
has got mixed up with the history of this remarkable fossil; and until
further confirmatory evidence is adduced, of an unimpeachable character,
faith cannot be reposed in the reality of the asserted Australian
Mastodon" (page 101).) It is indeed a grand paper. I will say nothing
more about your allusions to me, except that they have pleased me quite
as much in print as in MS. You must have worked very hard; the labour
must have been extreme, but I do hope that you will have health and
strength to go on. You would laugh if you could see how indignant all
Owen's mean conduct about E. Columbi made me. (155/6. See Letter 157.) I
did not get to sleep till past 3 o'clock. How well you lash him, firmly
and severely, with unruffled temper, as if you were performing a simple
duty. The case is come to such a pass, that I think every man of science
is bound |