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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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is said that since the year 1548 there has been<br />

"produced at Hangchow a variety called the<br />

fire-fish, from its intensely red colour. It is universally<br />

admired, and there is not a household<br />

where it is not cultivated, IN RIVALRY AS TO<br />

ITS COLOUR, and as a source <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>it.") Under<br />

natural conditions it does not seem probable<br />

that beings so highly organised as fishes,<br />

and which live under such complex relations,<br />

should become brilliantly coloured without<br />

suffering some evil or receiving some benefit<br />

from so great a change, and consequently without<br />

the intervention <strong>of</strong> natural selection.<br />

What, then, are we to conclude in regard to the<br />

many fishes, both sexes <strong>of</strong> which are splendidly<br />

coloured? Mr. Wallace (30. 'Westminster Review,'<br />

July 1867, p. 7.) believes that the species<br />

which frequent reefs, where corals and other<br />

brightly-coloured organisms abound, are brightly<br />

coloured in order to escape detection by<br />

their enemies; but according to my recollection

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