HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION AND VARIATION. 87 



know much about them ; but if we turn to that mode 

 of perpetuation which results from the sexual process, 

 then we find variation a perfectly constant occurrence, 

 to a certain extent ; and, indeed, I think that a certain 

 amount of variation from the primitive stock is the 

 necessary result of the method of sexual propagation 

 itself; for, inasmuch as the thing propagated proceeds 

 from two organisms of different sexes and different 

 makes and temperaments, and as the offspring is to be 

 either of one sex or the other, it is quite clear that it 

 cannot be an exact diagonal of the two, or it would be 

 of no sex at all ; it cannot be an exact intermediate 

 form between that of each of its parents — it must de- 

 viate to one side or the other. You do not find that 

 the male follows the precise type of the male parent, 

 nor does the female always inherit the precise charac- 

 teristics of the mother, — there is always a proportion 

 of the female character in the male offspring, and of 

 the male character in the female offspring. That must 

 be quite plain to all of you who have looked at all at- 

 tentively on your own children or those of your neigh- 

 bours ; you will have noticed how very often it may 

 happen that the son shall exhibit the maternal type of 

 character, or the daughter possess the characteristics 

 of the father's family. There are all sorts of intermix- 

 tures and intermediate conditions between the two, 

 where complexion, or beauty, or fifty other different 

 peculiarities belonging to either side of the house, are 

 reproduced in other members of the same family. In- 

 deed, it is sometimes to be remarked in this kind of 

 variation, that the variety belongs, strictly speaking, 

 to neither of the immediate parents ; you will see a 

 child in a family who is not like either its father or its 



