bud-variation, we are lost in doubt, being driven in some cases
to look to the direct action of the external conditions of life as
sufficient, and in other cases to feel a profound conviction that these
have played a quite subordinate part, of not more importance than the
nature of the spark which ignites a mass of combustible matter.

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.

* * * * *

NOTES

[1] To any one who has attentively read my 'Origin of Species' this
Introduction will be superfluous. As I stated that work that I should soon
publish the facts on which the conclusions given in it were founded, I here
beg permission to remark that the great delay in publishing this first work
has been caused by continued ill-health.

[2] M. Pouchet has recently ('Plurality of Races,' Eng. Translat., 1864, p.
83, &c.) insisted that variation under domestication throws no light on the
natural modification of species. I cannot perceive the force of his
arguments, or, to speak more accurately, of his assertions to this effect.

[3] Leon Dufour in 'Annales des Scienc. Nat.' (3rd series, Zoolog.), tom.
v. p. 6.

[4] In treating the several subjects included in the present and succeeding
works I have continually been led to ask for information from many
zoologists, botanists, geologists, breeders of animals, and
horticulturists, and I have invariably received from them the most generous
assistance. Without such aid I could have effected little. I have
repeatedly applied for information and specimens to foreigners, and to
British merchants and officers of the Government residing in distant lands,
and, with the rarest exceptions, I have received prompt, open-handed, and
valuable assistance. I cannot express too strongly my obligations to the
many persons who have assisted me, and who, I am convinced, would be
equally willing to assist others in any scientific investigation.

[5] Owen, 'British Fossil Mammals,' p. 123 to 133. Pictet's 'Traite de
Pal.,' 1853, tom. i. p. 202. De Blainville, in his 'Osteographie, Canidae,'
p. 142, has largely discussed the whole subject, and concludes that the
extinct parent of all domesticated dogs came nearest to the wolf in
organization, and to the jackal in habits.

[6] Pallas, I believe, originated this doctrine in 'Act. Acad. St.
Petersburgh,' 1780, Part ii. Ehrenberg has advocated it, as may be seen in
De B