Mr. Seebohm on Physiological Selection

Abstract

FROM a footnote to page 23 of Mr. Seebohm's recently published and magnificent monograph on the Charadriidæ I learn that I owe him an apology for having inadvertently misrepresented his views upon a point of considerable importance in the philosophy of evolution. In his British Association paper (which he now re-publishes) he went even further than I had gone in recognizing the “swamping effects of intercrossing” upon incipient varieties, with the consequent importance of isolation in the differentiation of species. I therefore supposed that he likewise agreed with me in holding it improbable that new species arise as a result of many beneficial variations of the same kind arising at the same time and in the same place. I now find, however, that he is a strong advocate of the opposite opinion—apparently going further than Asa Gray, Nägeli, Mivart, the Duke of Argyll, or indeed any other evolutionist, in support of the doctrine of teleological variation in determinate lines. I therefore write to withdraw my previous misrepresentation of his views upon this matter, and to apologize for my inadvertency in making it.