Chapter VII: Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection

Longevity—Modifications not necessarily simultaneous—Modifications apparently of no direct service—Progressive development—Characters of small functional importance, the most constant—Supposed incompetence of natural selection to account for the incipient stages of useful structures—Causes which interfere with the acquisition through natural selection of useful structures—Gradations of structure with changed functions—Widely different organs in members of the same class, developed from one and the same source—Reasons for disbelieving in great and abrupt modifications.

I will devote this chapter to the consideration of various miscellaneous objections which have been advanced against my views, as some of the previous discussions may thus be made clearer; but it would be