1 02 Review of Darwin 



animals have been chosen by man on account, among other things, 

 of their capacity for variation, he says : — "I do not dispute that 

 these capacities have added largely to the value of some of our 

 domesticated productions ; but how could a savage possibly know- 

 when he first tamed an animal whether it would vary in succeed- 

 ing generations, and whether it would endure other climates? 

 Has the little variability of the ass or the guinea-fowl, or the small 

 power of endurance of warmth of the reindeer or of cold by the 

 common camel, prevented their domestication? I cannot doubt that 

 if other animals and plants equal in number to our domesticated 

 productions, and belonging to equally diverse classes and coun- 

 tries, were taken from a state of nature, and could be made to 

 breed for an equal number of generations under domestication, 

 they would vary on the av^erage as largely as the parent species of 

 our existing domesticated productions have varied." On reading 

 these sentences it must occur to any reflective reader, 1st. That 

 savages very rarely tame animals. 2d. That if savages or others 

 attempted to tame animals indiscriminately, they would fail in 

 many cases, and these in the very cases in w^hich species could 

 endure little change. 3d. Animals little variable, like the rein- 

 deer and the camel, have little geographical range, and this just 

 because of the fixity or tenderness of their constitution. 4th. Even 

 the capacity of breeding at all under the changed conditions o^ 

 domestication, is wanting in some species. In short, there is no 

 reason whatever to believe that species are equally variable ; but, 

 on the contrary, that they differ very much in this respect, — as 

 naturalists have always maintained. In the same loose way he 

 treats the doctrine of the tendency of varieties to revert to the 

 original types of the species. This, our author admits, if estab- 

 lished, would overthrow his whole hypothesis, and he gets rid of 

 it by denying the evidence of reversion afforded by so many of 

 our domestic animals and cultivated plants, and by farther affirm- 

 ing that such, reversion, if it does occur, amounts to nothing, 

 because produced by external causes. Certain species, by the 

 external causes applied in domestication, are caused to vary. 

 These causes being removed, as every one knows, they gradually 

 lose their acquired and unnatural characteristics ; but, according- 

 to Mr. Darwin, this gives no evidence of an original type, but only 

 of the operation of other causes of change, tending in some other 

 direction. The argument would be good if we could have 

 species destitute of all distinctive characters to begin with ; in 



