SPECIES AND BREEDS. 141 



irhich lias been urged with great persistency in 

 recent discussions. I refer to the variability of 

 Species as shewn in domestication. 



The domesticated animals with their numer- 

 ous breeds are constantly adduced as evidence 

 of the changes which animals may undergo, and 

 as furnishing hints respecting the way in which 

 the diversity now observed among animals may 

 have been produced. It is my conviction that 

 such inferences are in no way sustained by the 

 facts of the case, and that, however striking the 

 differences may be between the breeds of our 

 domesticated animals, as compared with the wild 

 Species of the same Genus, they are of a peculiar 

 character, entirely distinct from the features pre- 

 vailing among the latter, and altogether incident 

 to the circumstances under which they appear. 

 By this I do not mean the natural action of phys- 

 ical conditions, but the more or less intelligent 

 direction of the circumstances under which they 

 live. The inference drawn from the varieties in- 

 troduced among animals in a state of domestica- 

 tion, with reference to the origin of Species, is 

 usually this : that what the farmer does on a 

 small scale Nature may do on a large one. It is 

 true that man has been able to produce certain 

 changes in the animals under his care, and that 

 these changes have resulted in a variety of breeds. 

 But in doing this, he has, hi my estimation, in 



