mony, there, incontestably, is not. All of the instances of adaptation, shown by Darwin, are, when they involve a decrease of structure, instances which imply an advance towards sterility, and consequent extinction. Where the adaptations cited, show increase of structure, the adaptations are possible, only because they are the regain of structural integrity, previously lost. It has been urged, that it is gratuitous, to allege that an animal is in any way inferior, after having lost a character, through adaptation to changed conditions of life. The answer to this is: We do not call imperfection what we merely fancy such, but prove it to be imperfection, by the facts of close-interbreeding, which demonstrate, that physiological evils, viz., lessened fertility, and lessened constitutional vigor, are wrought upon the organism, in proportion, degree for degree, with such alleged imperfection.

With varieties, under domestication, this process of extinction, by means of the evils resulting from the interbreeding of forms wanting in characters of their species, is, with Pigeons, Fowls, and Pigs, hastened by Man, through his effecting the reduction of so many characters, in each variety, and through his altering the ratio of the development of the characters which remain. Such varieties cannot long survive, if they retain always their peculiarity of form. Darwin speaks of high fancy varieties of the Pigeon, being known, for hundreds of years; and, obviously desires it to be inferred, that such varieties may so long breed their kind. This they cannot do. Of these varieties, he himself says; that they "seem both to have origi

nated and disappeared," and to have appeared again, "within this same period," of two hundred and odd years. He also refers to, and records the many breeds which "have become extinct" (p. 508, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c).

The reason, that these fancy varieties continue their breed the length of time that they do, is, because, first, the differences, between the individuals of each variety, serve, in a measure, to stave off the evil effects for a time; secondly, because these varieties frequently cross; and, thirdly, because these varieties change their forms, from time to time, by means of the action of reversion in some of their characters, and of the influence of Man's Selection.

Darwin says (p. 262, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c.): "Fashions do, to a certain extent, change; first, one point of structure, and then another, is attended to." And again he says, "The fancy ebbs and flows."

This fashion and fancy are quite frequently controlled and directed, unconsciously to man, by the fact that health and breeding capacity are to be found, only in those individuals which depart in some point from the defective, varietal type. Man, therefore, in picking out the strong individuals and the good breeders, unwittingly changes the form of the variety.

With improved breeds of horses, of sheep, and of cattle, there is a probability of their being able to continue their line, for many centuries, because they generally approximate the full and proportionate development of their respective species.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CROSSING AND THE CLOSE-INTERBREEDING OF PIGS.

Of the smaller animals, the Pigeon, and the Fowl, as we have seen, show adaptation to man's use or fancy, at the greatest expense to their structural integrity. The results are, great disproportionate development and, as a necessary consequence of this, the greatest degree of the evils which are occasioned by close-interbreeding. In all of the larger animals, except the Pig, adaptation to man's use, has harmonized, to a greater or less degree, with the development, in each individual, of all the characters of its species.

With the Pig, as has just been remarked, it is otherwise. This species is the most disproportionately developed, of all the larger animals, under domestication. The disproportionate development, however, is due to a different occasion, from that which has entailed the abnormal structures of varieties of the Fowl, and of the Pigeon. In these species, under domestication, the false ratio of the development of their characters, is due, principally, to man's selecting, as the peculiarity of each variety, one only of the characters which were reduced or suppressed, under nature; and to his pushing the development of that character, to an extreme point. Thus, while all of the characters of the species,

Pigeon, for instance, are developed, under domestication, they are not all developed, in each individual; but, many of them are apportioned among different

varieties.

With the Pig, however, there has been, under domestication, direct reduction and suppression of many of its characters. The same characters, have, in the main, been reduced or suppressed, in all of the improved (?) varieties of this species. Darwin, speaking of breeding in general, and of the divergence, which is so notably exemplified in the case of the pigeon, says (p. 290, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c.):

"Selection, whether methodical or unconscious, always tending towards an extreme point, together with the neglect and slow extinction of the intermediate and less valued forms, is the key which unlocks the mystery how man has produced such wonderful results. In a few instances, selection, guided by utility, for a single purpose, has led to convergence of character. All the improved and different races of the Pig, as Nathusius has well shown, closely approach each other in character, in their shortened legs, and muzzles, their almost hairless, large, rounded bodies, and small tusks:"

The only differences between the several breeds of Pigs, are the degrees to which this reduction and suppression has been carried; and the degrees in which those characters which have been retained, have been developed.

In all of the highly improved breeds, the legs, the tusks, the bristles, the hairy covering, the skin, the front of the head, the jaws, and the tail, have, as

has already been shown, been well-nigh eradicated, leaving them to serve as the merest appendages to a trunk, which, the more to vitiate the true ratio of the features of the species, has been monstrously developed.

It is manifest, then, that it is to the Pig, of all the larger animals, to which recourse should be had, for evidence of the theory, that the evil effects of interbreeding, are due to a departure from the mould, which comprises the full development of all the characters of the given species.

If there was ever a species, under domestication, with "serious defects in structure, or in the mutual relation of the parts," it is the Pig, as it presents itself, when "highly-bred."

Similarly: If there was ever a species, under domestication, which displayed marked evil effects from interbreeding, it is the Pig. To no other species, under man's care, does Darwin's remark, that, "Highly-bred animals are eminently liable to degeneration," so appropriately apply. For, it has been frequently remarked, by breeders, unconscious of the cause of the phenomenon they note, that the more improved the Pig, the more susceptible does it appear to be to the evils of lessened fertility, and delicacy of constitution.

Conformable to the presumption, raised by the great reduction in the characters of the Pig, is the following remark of Darwin:

"WITH PIGS," says he (p. 151, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c.), "THERE IS MORE UNANIMITY amongst breeders, on the evil effects of close-interbreeding, than, perhaps, with any other large animal."