The celebrated palaeontologist, Bronn, at the close of his German
translation of this work, asks how, on the principle of natural selection,
can a variety live side by side with the parent species? If both have
become fitted for slightly different habits of life or conditions, they
might live together; and if we lay on one side polymorphic species, in
which the variability seems to be of a peculiar nature, and all mere
temporary variations, such as size, albinism, etc., the more permanent
varieties are generally found, as far as I can discover, inhabiting
distinct stations, such as high land or low land, dry or moist districts.
Moreover, in the case of animals which wander much about and cross freely,
their varieties seem to be generally confined to distinct regions.
Bronn also insists that distinct species never differ from each other in
single characters, but in many parts; and he asks, how it always comes that
many parts of the organisation should have been modified at the same time
through variation and natural selection? But there is no necessity for
supposing that all the parts of any being have been simultaneously
modified. The most striking modifications, excellently adapted for some
purpose, might, as was formerly remarked, be acquired by successive
variations, if slight, first in one part and then in another; and as they
would be transmitted all together, they would appear to us as if they had
been simultaneously developed.
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