Page:Darwinism by Alfred Wallace 1889.djvu/93

III size. I noted particularly that these variations bore no necessary relation to each other, so that a large temporal muscle and zygomatic aperture might exist either with a large or a small cranium; and thus was explained the curious difference between the single-crested and the double-crested skulls, which had been supposed to characterise distinct species. As an instance of the amount of variation in the skulls of fully adult male orangs, I found the width between the orbits externally to be only 4 inches in one specimen and fully 5 inches in another.

Exact measurements of large series of comparable skulls of the mammalia are not easily found, but from those available I have prepared three diagrams (Figs. 14, 15, and 16), in order to exhibit the facts of variation in this very important organ. The first shows the variation in ten specimens of the common wolf (Canis lupus) from one district in North America, and we see that it is not only large in amount, but that each part exhibits a considerable independent variability.

In Diagram 15 we have the variations of eight skulls of the Indian Honey-bear (Ursus labiatus), as tabulated by the late Dr. J. E. Gray of the British Museum. For such a small number of specimens the amount of variation is very large—from one-eighth to one-fifth of the mean size,—while there are an extraordinary number of instances of independent variability. In Diagram 16 we have the length and width of twelve skulls of adult males of the Indian wild boar (Sus cristatus), also given by Dr. Gray, exhibiting in both sets of measurements a variation of more than one-sixth, combined with a very considerable amount of independent variability.

The few facts now given, as to variations of the internal parts of animals, might be multiplied indefinitely by a search through the voluminous writings of comparative anatomists. But the evidence already adduced, taken in conjunction with the much fuller evidence of variation in all external organs, leads us to the conclusion that wherever variations are looked for among a considerable number of individuals of the more