MAN'S SELECTION 3 



maphrodite animals do cross, conclusion strength- 

 ened : ill effects of breeding in and in, good effects 

 of crossing possibly analogous to good effects of 

 change in condition (?) 1 . 



Therefore if in any country or district all animals 

 of one species be allowed freely to cross, any small 

 tendency in them to vary will be constantly counter- 

 acted. Secondly reversion to parent form analogue 

 of vis medicatrix 2 . But if man selects, then new 

 races rapidly formed, of late years systematically 

 followed, in most ancient times often practically 

 followed 3 . By such selection make race-horse, 

 dray-horse one cow good for tallow, another for 

 eating &c. one plant's good lay (illegible) in leaves 

 another in fruit &c. &c. : the same plant to supply 

 his wants at different times of year. By former 

 means animals become adapted, as a direct effect 

 to a cause, to external conditions, as size of body to 

 amount of food. By this latter means they may 

 also be so adapted, but further they may be adapted 

 to ends and pursuits, which by no possibility can 

 affect growth, as existence of tallow-chandler cannot 

 tend to make fat. In such selected races, if not 

 removed to new conditions, and (if) preserved 

 from all cross, after several generations become 

 very true, like each other and not varying. But 

 man 4 selects only (?) what is useful and curious- 

 has bad judgment, is capricious, grudges to destroy 

 those that do not come up to his pattern, has no 



1 A discussion ou the intercrossing of hermaphrodites in relation to 

 Knight's views occurs in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 96, vi. p. 119. The parallelism 

 between crossing and changed conditions is briefly given in the Origin, 

 Ed. i. p. 267, vi. p. 391, and was finally investigated in The Effects of 

 Cross and Self -Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom, 1876. 



2 There is an article on the vis medicatrix in Brougham's Dissertations, 

 1839, a copy of which is in the author's library. 



3 This is the classification of selection into methodical and unconscious 

 given in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 33, vi. p. 38. 



4 This passage, and a similar discussion on the power of the Creator 

 (p. 6), correspond to the comparison between the selective capacities of 

 man and nature, in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 83, vi. p. 102. 



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