VIII.] SUPPOSED TRANSMISSION OF MUTIIATIONS. 443 



to increase and spread in such a manner as to form the 

 dominant race in the island. But we can easily imagine how 

 it happened, when we learn that tailless cats are especially 

 prized ^ in Japan, because people think that they are better 

 mousers. Every one in Japan wishes to possess a tailless cat, 

 and people even cut off the tails of normal cats when they 

 cannot obtain those with congenital rudimentary tails, because 

 they believe that cats become better mousers in consequence 

 of taillessness. In Waldkirch the same account of the 

 superiority of tailless cats is curiously enough also found. We 

 thus see how a slight but striking variation may at once cause 

 an energetic process of artificial selection, which helps this 

 variation to predominance : a hint for us to be careful in 

 passing judgment upon sexual selection, for the latter also 

 works upon such functionally indifferent but striking variations. 

 In the case of the cats, man has favoured a particular variation, 

 because the novelty rather than the beauty of the character 

 surprised and attracted him. He has attached an imaginary 

 value to the new character, and by artificial selection has 

 helped it to predominate over the normal form. I see no 

 reason why the same process should not take place in animals 

 by the operation of sexual selection. 



But now, after this little digression, let us return to the 

 transmission of mutilations. 



We have seen that the rudimentary tails of cats and dogs, as 

 far as they can be submitted to scientific investigation, do not 

 depend upon the transmission of artificial mutilation, but upon 

 the spontaneous appearance of degeneration in the vertebral 

 column of the tail. The opinion may, however, be still held 

 that the customary artificial mutilation of the tail, in many 

 races of dogs and cats, has at least produced a number of 

 rudimentary tails, although, perhaps, n«t all of them. It might 

 be maintained that the fact of the spontaneous appearance of 

 rudimentary tails does not disprove the supposition that the 

 character may also depend upon the transmission of artificial 

 mutilation. 



Obviously, such a question can only be decided by experi- 



' See the interesting remarks by DOderlein on this point, which Dr. 

 Ischikawa of Japan tells me are quite correct. Ddderlein, ' Ueber 

 schwanzlose Katzen,' Zool. Anzeiger, vol. x. Nov. 1887, No. 265. 



