tention lead to the ignoring of facts which
really exist in abundance; as is well illustrated in the case of
pre-historic implements. Biassed by the current belief that no traces of
man were to be found on the Earth's surface, save in certain superficial
formations of very recent date, geologists and anthropologists not only
neglected to seek such traces, but for a long time continued to
pooh-pooh those who said they had found them. When M. Boucher de Perthes
at length succeeded in drawing the eyes of scientific men to the flint
implements discovered by him in the quarternary deposits of the Somme
valley; and when geologists and anthropologists had thus been convinced
that evidences of human existence were to be found in formations of
considerable age, and thereafter began to search for them; they found
plenty of them all over the world. Or again, to take an instance closely
germane to the matter, we may recall the fact that the contemptuous
attitude towards the hypothesis of organic evolution which naturalists
in general maintained before the publication of Mr. Darwin's work,
prevented them from seeing the multitudinous facts by which it is
supported. Similarly, it is very possible that their alienation from the
belief that there is a transmission of those changes of structure which
are produced by changes of action, makes naturalists slight the evidence
which supports that belief and refuse to occupy themselves in seeking
further evidence.

If it be asked how it happens that there have been recorded
multitudinous instances of variations fortuitously arising and
re-appearing in offspring, while there have not been recorded instances
of the transmission of changes functionally produced, there are three
replies. The first is that changes of the one class are many of them
conspicuous, while those of the other class are nearly all
inconspicuous. If a child is born with six fingers, the anomaly is not
simply obvious but so startling as to attract much notice; and if this
child, growing up, has six-fingered descendents, everybody in the
locality hears of it. A pigeon with specially-coloured feathers, or one
distinguished by a broadened and upraised tail, or by a protuberance of
the neck, draws attention by its oddness; and if in its young the trait
is repeated, occasionally with increase, the fact is remarked, and there
follows the thought of establishing the peculiarity by selection. A lamb
disabled from leaping by the shor