174 Charles Darwin. 



man has acted with careful discrimination. A dog 

 with especially long hair has been selected and bred 

 with another showing like characteristics. Among 

 the progeny of these all the long-haired dogs were 

 selected and as carefully mated, until finally a well- 

 defined long-haired variety was the result, so that in 

 looking at it the observer, familiar with none but the 

 wild, wolf-like dogs, would have said : '' Yes, it seems 

 to be a dog, but it differs from the others ; it is a 

 new variety of dog." 



So the original jungle fowl, under the supervision 

 of the breeder, has been made to produce the many 

 curious varieties of fowl ; and so we could go on in- 

 definitely, citing cases where man has shown his 

 power of producing certain singular results in the 

 shape and form of living beings. The greyhound, 

 with its enormous chest, its narrow, pointed nose, its 

 slender legs, every feature denoting speed, is a marked 

 contrast to the Dachhound, with its short bow-legs 

 and ungainly form ; yet each can be traced back to 

 a common stock. Man has produced this marvellous 

 transformation by making a study of dogs, selecting 

 those with certain peculiarities and mating them, 

 which has resulted in a form which, when compared 

 to the original, is called a variety. 



That similar conditions also hold in the human 

 race, and could be carried out indefinitely, is shown 

 by a v/ell-known instance cited by Professor Huxley. 

 He says : " Gratio Kelleia, a Maltese with six fingers 

 and six toes, married when he was twenty-two years 

 of age, and, as I suppose there were no six-fingered 

 ladies in Malta, he married an ordinary five-fingered 



