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Mr. Darwin and Professor Weismann differ in the way
in which they state the first point. Mr. Darwin says :—
“It can be shown that some insects and other articulate animals in
a state of nature occasionally become sterile ; and if such insects
had been social, and it had been profitable to the community that
a number should have been annually born capable of work but
incapable of procreation, I can see no special difficulty in this having
been effected through Natural Selection.”— (Origm of Species. p.22Q.)
“We may conclude from the analogy of ordinary variations that
the successive slight profitable modifications did not first arise in all
the neuters in the same nest, but in some few alone ; and that by the
survival of the communities with females which produced most neuters
having the advantageous modification, all the neuters ultimately came
to be thus characterised.”—(Origin of Species, p. 231.)
Dr. Weismann, professing to interpret Mr. Darwin, repre
sents him as saying something very different from what
he actually asserted.
“ Darwin discussed the existence of neuters in the insect states.
He accounted for their origin by supposing that a selection of the
fruitful females must have taken place, inasmuch as females which
produced sterile offspring, in addition to fruitful issue, were of special
value to the state ; for the existence of members that were workers
only was a gain to it and strengthened it, and assured it a superiority
over other colonies that had no workers. So in course of time the
states with workers conquered those with none, and in the end caused
them to disappear. In the same way all the variations among the
workers arose to make them more fit to be of service to the state.”—
( The Contemporary Review, vol. Ixiv., p. 314.)
Professor Weismann’s way of stating the case renders it
more easy to understand how one nest should survive in
the struggle for existence, while another should succumb.
But I am not aware that there is any evidence to show
that there are families which have a certain number of
neuters and others which have none ; and, indeed, one
would not expect to find them, for the association of
social insects seems to be based upon the production of
these workers.