io 4 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



ter, and other qualities. As a rule it is difficult to look 

 at such a number, because in Nature only two on the 

 average out of many hundreds, sometimes thousands, 

 born from a single pair of parents, grow up to take their 

 parents 1 place, and these two are those " selected " by 

 natural survival on account of their close resemblance to 

 the parents. But if we experimentally rear all the off- 

 spring of a plant or animal to full growth not allowing 

 them to perish by competition for food, or place, or by 

 inability to escape enemies then we see more clearly 

 how great is the in-born variation, how many and wide 

 are the departures from the favoured standard form 

 which are naturally born and owe their peculiarities to 

 this birth-quality called innate or congenital variation 

 and not to anything which happens to them after- 

 wards differing from what happens to their brothers and 

 sisters. 



Of course, we are all familiar with this " congenital 

 or innate variation," as shown by brothers and sisters 

 in human families. How and why do innate variations 

 arise ? They arise from chemical and mechanical action 

 upon the "germs" or reproductive cells contained in 

 the body of the parents, and also sometimes from the 

 mating in reproduction of two strains or races which 

 are already different from one another. When an 

 animal or plant is given unaccustomed food or brought 

 up in new surroundings (as, for instance, in captivity) 

 its germs are affected, and they produce variations in 

 the next generation more abundantly. The best 

 analogy for what occurs is that of a '" shaking up " or 

 disturbance of the particles of the germ or reproduc- 

 tive material, somewhat as the beads and bits of glass 

 in a kaleidoscope are shaken and change from one 

 well-balanced arrangement to another. And the same 

 analogy applies to the crossing or fertilising of " strain " 

 or " race " by another differing from it. A disturbance 

 is the consequence, and a departure in the form and 



