198 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



aphorism, natura non facit saltum, and contend that 

 species are always formed by what has been desig- 

 nated as saltatory Evolution, that is, Evolution 

 which effects such notable change in an organism 

 that it is constituted a distinct species from the be- 

 ginning. Among the extraordinary births which 

 are appealed to as evidence of the existence of sal- 

 tatory Evolution, are the Ancon and Mauchamp 

 breeds of sheep, Niata cattle, pug dogs, tumbler 

 pigeons, hook-bill ducks, and a large number of vege- 

 table forms that have suddenly appeared with 

 essentially the same characteristic features which 

 they now exhibit. ' 



To the objection that we have no evidence that 

 wild species ever originate in this way, it is- replied 

 that "we have never witnessed the origin of a wild 

 species by any process whatever; and if a species 

 were to come suddenly into being in a wild state, as 

 the Ancon sheep did under domestication, how could 

 you ascertain the fact? If the first of a newly-be- 

 gotten species were found, the fact of its discovery 

 would tell nothing about its origin. Naturalists 

 would register it as a very rare species, having been 

 only once met with, but they would have no means 



1 The real author of the theory of saltatory Evolution was 

 Geoffrey Saint- Hilaire. It has, however, been specially devel- 

 oped and supported by such eminent authorities as Mivart, 

 Owen, Kolliker, and the Duke of Argyll. Even Huxley is in- 

 clined to take a favorable view of it. " We greatly suspect," he 

 says, " that she (nature) does make considerable jumps in the 

 way of variation now and then, and that these saltations give 

 rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of 

 known forms." Mr. Bateson's recent theory of " discontinuous 

 variations," is essentially only a modification of the theorv of 

 saltatory Evolution as held by Mivart and others. 



