XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 425 
is called RECURRENCE—the tendency of races 
which have been developed by selective breeding 
_ from varieties to return to their primitive type. 
a _ 
eae a 
This is supposed by many to put an absolute limit 
to the extent of selective and all other variations. 
People say, “ It is all very well to talk about pro- 
ducing these different races, but you know very 
well that if you turned all these birds wild, these 
Pouters, and Carriers, and so on, they would all re- 
turn to their primitive stock.” This is very com- 
monly assumed to be a fact, and it is an argument 
that is commonly brought forward as conclusive ; 
but if you will take the trouble to inquire into it 
_ rather closely, I think you will find that it is not 
worth very much. The first question of course is, 
Do they thus return to the primitive stock? And 
commonly as the thing is assumed and accepted, 
it is extremely difficult to get anything like good 
evidence of it. It is constantly said, for example, 
that if domesticated Horses are turned wild, as 
they have been in some parts of Asia Minor and 
South America, that they return at once to the 
primitive stock from which they were bred. But 
the first answer that you make to this assumption 
is, to ask who knows what the primitive stock 
was ; and the second answer is, that in that case 
the wild Horses of Asia Minor ought to be exactly 
like the wild Horses of South America. If they 
are both like the same thing, they ought mani- 
festly to be like each other! The best authorities, 
