Origin of Species Variorum

→ reduced, during successive generations, 1859 1860 1866 1869

reduced, during successive genera- tions, 1861

formerly reduced 1872

→ having been fitted by 1859

having been better fitted by 1860

or lips, having become better fitted by 1861 1866 1869

or lips, having become excellently fitted through 1872

→ untouched by selection or disuse, 1859 1860 1861 1866 1869

unaffected, 1872

→ being and each separate organ 1859 1860 1861

being and each of its separate parts 1866

being with all its separate parts 1869

with all its separate parts 1872

→ parts, like 1859 1860 1861

organs, like 1866

organs bearing the plain stamp of inutility, such as 1869 1872

→ bear the plain stamp of inutility! Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal, by rudimentary organs and by homologous structures, her scheme of modification, which it seems that we wilfully will not understand. 1859

bear the plain stamp of inutility! 1860 1861 1866

occur. 1869 1872

↑ 1 blocks not present in 1859; present in 1860 1861 1866 1869 1872

Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal, by rudimentary organs and by homologous structures, her scheme of modification, which it seems that we wilfully will not understand.

→ changed, and are still slowly changing by the preservation and accumulation of successive slight favourable variations. 1859

been modified, during a long course of descent, by the preservation or the natural selection of many successive slight favourable variations. 1860 1861 1866

been modified, during a long course of descent, chiefly through the natural selection of numerous successive, slight, favourable variations. 1869

been modified, during a long course of descent. 1872

→ have 1859 1860 1861 1866

until recently did nearly 1869 1872

→ rejected this view of 1859 1860 1861 1866

reject this view of 1869

disbelieve in 1872

of life; and we can

~~clearly~~

clearly

understand on this view the meaning of rudimentary organs. But disuse and selection will generally act on each creature, when it has come to maturity and has to play its full part in the struggle for existence, and will thus have little power

~~of acting~~

of acting

on an organ during early life; hence the organ will not be

~~much~~

much

reduced or rendered rudimentary at this early age. The calf, for instance, has inherited teeth, which never cut through the gums of the upper jaw, from an early progenitor having well-developed teeth; and we may believe, that the teeth in the mature animal were →reduced, during successive generations, by

disuse,

disuse

owing to

or by

the tongue and

palate,

palate

→having been fitted by natural selection to browse without their aid; whereas in the calf, the teeth have been left →untouched by selection or disuse, and on the principle of inheritance at corresponding ages have been inherited from a remote period to the present day. On the view of each

organism

organic

→being and each separate organ having been specially created, how utterly

in-explicable

inexplicable

is it

it is

that →parts, like the teeth in the embryonic calf or

~~like~~

the shrivelled wings under the soldered wing-covers of

many

some

beetles, should

~~thus~~

thus

so frequently →bear the plain stamp of inutility! Nature may be said to have taken pains to reveal, by rudimentary organs and by homologous structures, her scheme of modification, which it seems that we wilfully will not understand. ↑

I have now recapitulated the

~~chief~~

chief

facts and considerations which have thoroughly convinced me that species have →changed, and are still slowly changing by the preservation and accumulation of successive slight favourable variations. Why, it may be asked, →have

nearly all

all

the most eminent living naturalists and geologists →rejected this view of the mutability of

species.

species?

It cannot be