dead-leaf butterfly, every minute variation must be of value and have
been seized upon by natural selection.
A Dilemma
Thus the Wallaceians are on the horns of a dilemma. If they assert, as
they appear to do, that every infinitesimal variation has a survival
value, they find it difficult to explain the existence, side by side of
such forms as the hooded and carrion crows, to say why in some species of
bird both sexes assume a conspicuous nuptial plumage at the very time
when they stand most in need of protective coloration, why the cock
paradise flycatcher is chestnut for the first two years of his life and
then turns as white as snow. If, on the other hand, the Wallaceians
assert that small variations are unimportant and have no survival value,
they are, as Kellog points out, in trouble over the close and detailed
resemblance which the Kallima butterflies bear to dead leaves.
10. An objection to the Darwinian theory which has been advanced by Conn,
Henslow, D. Dewar, and others, is that the selection theory fails to take
into account the effects of chance. “If,” writes D. Dewar on page 707 of
_The Albany Review_, vol. ii., “the struggle for existence were of the
nature of a race at a well-regulated athletic meeting, where the
competitors are given a fair start, where there is no difference in the
conditions to which the various runners are subjected, then indeed would
every variation tell. I would rather liken the struggle for existence to
the rush to get out of a crowded theatre, poorly provided with exits,
when an alarm of fire is given. The people to escape are not necessarily
the strongest of those present. Propinquity to a door may be a more
valuable asset than strength.”
Or again, we may take the imaginary case of some antelopes being pursued
by wolves. The chase, being prolonged, brings the antelopes to a locality
with which they are not familiar. The foremost of the herd, the most
swift, and therefore the individual which should stand the best chance of
survival, suddenly finds himself on soft boggy ground, which, owing to
the depth to which his feet sink into the soil, seriously impedes his
progress. His fellow antelopes, now outdistanced, seeing his predicament,
take another course and soon leave him behind, to fall an easy prey to
his foes. Here we have a case of the perishing of the most fit as regards
the important point of speed.
The Effects of Chance
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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