DEGENERA TION. 1 3 



some case of the production of new forms of plants, 

 or of animals, by natural causes at the present day. 

 Such cases he found in the production of new forms 

 or varieties of plants and animals, by breeders. 

 Breeders (the persons who make it their business 

 to produce new varieties of flowers, of pigeons, of 

 sheep, or what not) make use of two fundamental 

 properties of living things in order to accomplish 

 their purpose. These two properties are, firstly, that 

 no two animals or plants, even when born of the 

 same parents, are exactly alike ; this is known as 

 Variation : secondly, that an organism, as a rule, 

 inherits, that is to say, is born with the peculiarities 

 of its parents; this is known as Transmission, and 

 is simply dependent on the fact that the offspring 

 of any plant or animal Is only a detached portion 

 of the parent — a chip of the old block, as the 

 saying Is. The breeder selects from a number of 

 specimens of a plant or animal a variety which 

 comes nearest to the form he wishes to produce. 

 • Supposing he wished to produce a race of oxen with 

 short horns, he would select from his herd bulls and 

 cows with the shortest horns, and allow these only 

 to breed ; they would transmit their relatively short 



