38 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES n 



limbs of the mother and grandmother; so that 

 here, notwithstanding a double pentadactyle 

 dilution of the blood, the hexadactyle variety had 

 the best of it. The same pre-potency of the 

 variety was still more markedly exemplified in the 

 progeny of two of the other children, Marie and 

 George. Marie (whose thumbs only were de- 

 formed) gave birth to a boy with six toes, and 

 three other normally formed children ; but George, 

 who was not quite so pure a pentadactyle, begot, 

 first, two girls, each of whom had six fingers and 

 toes ; then a girl with six fingers on each hand and 

 six toes on the right foot, but only five toes on 

 the left ; and lastly, a boy with only five fingers 

 and toes. In these instances, therefore, the 

 variety, as it were, leaped over one generation to 

 reproduce itself in full force in the next. Finally, 

 the purely pentadactyle Andre was the father of 

 many children, not one of whom departed from 

 the normal parental type. 



If a variation which approaches the nature of a 

 monstrosity can strive thus forcibly to reproduce 

 itself, it is not wonderful that less aberrant 

 modifications should tend to be preserved even 

 more strongly ; and the history of the Ancon sheep 

 is, in this respect, particularly instructive. With 

 the " 'cuteness " characteristic of their nation, the 

 neighbours of the Massachusetts farmer imagined 

 it would be an excellent thing if all his sheep 

 were imbued with the stay-at-home tendencies 



