From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
Date:
12 Sept [1860]
Source of text:
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.226)
Summary:
Additional response, at length, to CL’s criticisms of natural selection. Comments on failure of rodents to develop in Australia. Argues that most species become extinct and do not develop. Discusses variability, especially variability of rudimentary organs. Extinction among ammonites. Survival of Ornithorhynchus. Descent of marsupials and placentals. Emphasises embryological argument for descent of species.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project