RECORD: Darwin, C. R. n.d. When I speak of old important organ not varying. CUL-DAR205.5.48. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 1.2023. RN1
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR205.5 contains notes on the principle of divergence, transitional organs and instincts.
[48]
When I speak of old important organ not varying I must partly admit truth, & say I suspect cause that longest inherited are earliest formed & therefore have become important to all rest of subsequently organisation—
Thus head more important to vertebrates than to mollusca because earlier formed in Embryo.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 4 March, 2023