TRANSMUTABLE. 29 



is simply that a deaf cat with blue eyes has 

 transmitted its auditory defect and visual pe- 

 culiarity to its successors. But it would be the 

 height of absurdity, to suppose that by selecting 

 this coincident defect, a cat-fancier could produce 

 a correlation of other parts of structure in the 

 cat! 



Of the facts quoted from Heusinger I know 

 nothing; but I will venture to wager my exis- 

 tence, that I will poison a black and white pig, 

 or a black and white sheep, with the same doses 

 of the same poison, whatever that may be. 

 Hairs, teeth, horns, feathers, and skins, being all 

 merely modifications of the same epidermic fibre, 

 there is nothing at all wonderful in the fact, 

 that there should be a reciprocal relation between 

 their growth and development. But if Mr. 

 Darwin means to assert, that by taking animals 

 having any peculiarity of growth in the epider- 

 mic fibrous element, he can induce a modification 

 in the growth of any other distinct element, or, 

 if in other words, he says he can affect the 

 normal growth of nerve, bone, blood; or that 

 he can produce, by crossing, a correlation of 

 growth between structures anatomically or his- 

 tologically different, I tell him he asserts that 

 which is disproved by every known fact in 

 science. 



So much for correlation. Mr. Darwin's next 

 cause of variation is inheritance. This is the 

 very basis of his doctrine, and singularly enough 

 he writes himself, unconsciously, a condemnation 



