Dear Sir:

I have forwarded by current mail to your address several short articles—on mammals chiefly,—several of which contain incidental allusions to the doctrine which is so inseparably connected with your name.¹ You will recognize in me, thereby, a humble disciple who is endeavoring to apply the doctrine to the arrangement and elucidation of the relations of certain groups of animals. I have long been convinced,—not only of the truth of the doctrine of evolution, in which I am of accord with most of the prominent naturalists of this country—but of your explanation of the modus operandi,—at least, to a very considerable extent. While most of our naturalists of acknowledged ability recognize evolution, many of them (indeed, almost all) refuse to recognize the operation of “natural selection.” It seems to me, however, that every naturalist who recognizes the subordination of teleology to morphology, and that adaptive modifications of an organ or part are of far less consequence or value for the determination of affinities than irrelative modifications, tacitly admits that in the long run natural selection does exert a very material influence. This view has appeared to strike some who were not convinced by other arguments.

I am now carrying through the press an extensive work on the Mammals in which I shall introduce geneological views of the families of the class, and discuss their relations from an evolutionist’s point of view. I shall do myself the honor to forward a copy to you on completion.²

Yours very truly | Theo. Gill

P.S. I also forward a phonographer’s report of two lectures on “darwinism” which concluded a course before the Seniors of our college here.³ They are in the main correct, although abounding in typographical and clerical errors, & in one case (Geog. dist. Moll) the point is not manifest. I should prefer to have had them published in some other Journal that one devoted to phrenological vagaries, but did not feel disposed to positively forbid their publication   The lectures were entirely extemporaneous & without notes, (quotations excepted).