Characters as Adaptive and Specific. 197 



tain its many and highly peculiar characters for a 

 number of generations without the help of selection, 

 either natural or artificial. This is the first point to 

 be clear upon. Be its origin what it may, we know 

 that this breed has proved capable of perpetuating 

 itself with uniform " constancy " for a number of 

 generations after the artificial selection has ceased 

 supposing such a process ever to have occurred. And 

 this certain fact that artificial selection, even if it 

 was originally needed to establish the type, has not 

 been needed to perpetuate the type, is a full answer 

 to the supposed objection. For, in view of this fact, it 

 is immaterial what the origin of the niata breed may 

 have been. In the present connexion, the importance 

 of this breed consists in its proving the subsequent 

 " stability " of an almost monstrous form, continued 

 through a long series of generations by the force 

 of heredity alone, without the aid of any form of 

 selection. 



The next point is, that not only is a seeming 

 objection to the illustration thus removed, but that, 

 if we do entertain the question of origin, and if we 

 do suppose the origin of these cattle to have been 

 in a congenital " sport," afterwards multiplied by 

 artificial isolation, we actually strengthen our general 

 argument by increasing the importance of this par- 

 ticular illustration. For the illustration then becomes 

 available to show how indifferent specific characters 

 may sometimes originate in merely individual sports, 

 which, if not immediately extinguished by free 

 intercrossing, will perpetuate themselves by the 

 unaided force of heredity. But this is a point to which 

 we shall recur in the ensuing chapter. 



