A REMARKABLE ANTICIPATION, ETC. 13 
the main responsible for the new varieties which arise from 
time to time. This opinion Prichard considered to be 
probably well grounded; and the conclusion that size and 
stature chiefly depend on the mother he also thought to be 
well established. Hence we see that his judgment and 
penetration were not always proof against popular convic- 
tions insufficiently sustained by evidence. These strange 
views about the relative importance of the two parents 
seem to have disappeared, and only traces of them are to 
be found in the popular beliefs of the day. 
The author dismisses the extreme cases of the supposed 
effect of the mother’s imagination upon the unborn child as 
manifestly absurd; but looks with some favour upon the 
opinion, also held by Erasmus Darwin whom he quotes, 
that the future offspring may be effected by the imagination 
of the parent at the moment of conception. In proof of 
the ancient origin of this belief he alludes to Jacob's ex- 
periments upon the flocks of Laban. 
When, however, Prichard comes to reconsider all his 
suggested causes of variation he is dissatisfied with them 
and admits that “the circumstances—are of a more per- 
manent nature,” and that it is often ‘‘impossible to discover 
any peculiar circumstance in the condition of the mother”. 
This leads him to consider the similar instances among 
domestic animals and among plants and at this point he 
anticipates in a truly remarkable manner Darwin's general 
conclusions as to the origin of our domestic breeds. 
“Tt is generally supposed,” he says on page 557, “that 
cultivation is the most productive cause of varieties in the 
kind, both in the animal and vegetable kingdom. But it 
may be questioned, does cultivation actually give rise to 
entirely new varieties, or does it only foster and propagate 
those which have sprung up naturally, or as it is termed 
accidentally ? 
‘In this latter way the influence of art is very impor- 
tant in constituting breeds, as of cattle, dogs, horses. The 
artificial process consists in a careful selection of those in- 
dividual animals which happen to be possessed, in a greater 
degree than the generality, of any particular characters 
