110 Review of Darwin 



likely to be mistaken for species, the varieties of the pigeon are 

 really something essentially different from true species, and the 

 same conclusion would hold with any animal that could be 

 selected. 



We now come to the causes of variation in a state of domesti- 

 cation ; and here, already, in the twenty-ninth page of his volume, 

 we find our author leaving the basis of fact and losing himself in 

 the mazes in which he henceforth continues to wander. He 

 attributes the varieties of domestic animals to "Man's power of 

 accumulative selection ; nature gives successive variations ; man 

 adds them up in certain directions useful to him." We object to 

 this, as altogether a partial and imperfect statement. It is not 

 nature that gives the variations, but external circumstances; 

 while nature only gives a certain capacity to vary, the extent of 

 which is the point in question. Man places animals in abnormal 

 conditions into which their instincts and natural powers would 

 not permit them of themselves to enter. They vary in conse- 

 quence of these, sometimes suddenly, sometimes gradually, some- 

 times from premeditated treatment, sometimes unaccountably, 

 sometimes in directions useful to man, sometimes the reverse. 

 Out of all the diversities thus produced, man no doubt selects 

 Avhat suits him, and keeps it, as far as he can, in the conditions 

 favorable to its permanence and improvement ; but such selection 

 is a comparatively small part of the actual cause of the pheno- 

 mena observed, which result really from unnatural conditions of 

 life compelled by man. Who selected, for example, the niata 

 cattle of South America, the hairless dogs of Chili, the tail-less 

 cats of the Isle of Man, and many other forms ? 



Selection is no doubt an important cause of the continuation 

 and improvement of varieties, and has also, as our author main- 

 tains, been practised from a very remote antiquity in the case of 

 the more valuable domesticated animals. He might have referred 

 to a more ancient case than any of those he has noticed. Laban 

 selected all the speckled cattle from Jacob's flock, understanding 

 very well the principle of selection ; but Jacob was better informed 

 than Laban or Mr. Darwin, and not trusting to selection, but 

 knowing the effect of external influences and their special impor- 

 tance in the embryonic state, he set up peeled twigs before the 

 pregnant cattle, and so acting on the embryo through the senses 

 of the mother, produced the':variety he desired. The undue pro- 

 minence given to selection by our author is the main basis on 

 which he subsequently proceeds. 



