must have been accumulated almost enough to make or mar that part of
Mr. Darwin's well-known argument which rests on what is known of the
phenomena of hybridism. The present list reveals only one fact
bearing on the subject, but that is a noteworthy one, for it
completely overthrows the commonly accepted theory that the mixed
offspring of different species are infertile inter se. At page 15
(of the list of vertebrated animals living in the gardens of the
Zoological Society of London, Longman and Co., 1862) we find
enumerated three examples of hybrids between two perfectly distinct
species, and even, according to modern classification, between two
distinct genera of ducks, for three or four generations. There can
be little doubt that a series of researches in this branch of
experimental physiology, which might be carried on at no great loss,
would place zoologists in a far better position with regard to a
subject which is one of the most interesting if not one of the most
important in natural history."

I fear that both you and your readers will be dead sick of Darwin,
but the above is worthy of notice. My compliments to the "Savoyard."

Your obedient servant,
May 17th. A. M.



DARWIN AMONG THE MACHINES



"Darwin Among the Machines" originally appeared in the Christ Church