False Atavism 215 



and in other cases the evidence relied upon does 

 not suffice to exclude this assumption. Many 

 an old argument has of late lost its force by 

 this test. 



Returning to our starting point we may now 

 state that regular reversions to a specific type 

 characterize a form as a variety of that species. 

 These reversions, however, are not due to an 

 innate tendency, but to unobserved spontaneous 

 crosses. 



