FERTILITY 603 



sexual constitution of the species which are crossed ; or on 

 their elective affinity/' Sixthly, cross sterility between species 

 may depend possibly in certain cases upon distinct causes, 

 such as deterioration due to unnatural conditions to which the 

 hybrid embryo may be exposed in the uterus, egg, or seed Trf 

 the mother. " Seventhly, hybrids and mongrels present, with 

 the one great exception of fertility, the most striking accordance 

 in all other respects ; namely, in the laws of their resemblance 

 to their two parents, in their tendency to reversion, in their 

 variability, and in being absorbed through repeated crosses by 

 either parent form/' It is obvious, however, that this last 

 conclusion requires some modification in the light of recent 

 Mendelian research. 



Darwin maintains further that the cross fertility which 

 exists between the different varieties of various species of 

 domesticated animals, in spite of their great divergence in 

 external appearance, is the direct effect of domestication which 

 eliminates the tendency towards mutual sterility. In this way 

 " the domesticated descendants of species, which in their natural 

 state would have been in some degree sterile when crossed, 

 become perfectly fertile together/' Both Darwin and Wallace 

 lay stress upon the apparent existence of a parallelism between 

 crossing and change of conditions in so far as these affect the 

 power to reproduce. " Slight changes of conditions and a slight 

 amount of crossing, are beneficial ; while extreme changes, and 

 crosses between individuals too far removed in structure or 

 constitution, are injurious/' * Furthermore, domestic animals 

 are less susceptible to the influences of changed conditions of 

 existence than wild animals, a fact which finds a parallel in the 

 absence of sterility between domesticated varieties of the same 

 species. 



Wallace has cited several cases in which it has been shown 

 that hybrids between distinct species are fertile inter se. Such 

 cases are the hybrids between the domestic and Chinese geese, 

 those between the Indian humped and common cattle, and the 

 various hybrids between the different species of the genus Cams. 

 A recently recorded case of a fertile hybrid between a lion 

 and a jaguar may also be cited. These and other observations 



1 Wallace (A. R.), Darwinism, London, 1897. 



