142 LECTUEES ON BIOLOGY 



through various generations towards a certain direction, there 

 may arise individuals which differ from the rest of the species 

 and their parents in so many points and so widely that we may 

 no longer regard them as sub-species or variations, but must 

 give them the rank of a separate species. If this assumption is 

 correct, variations must claim our utmost interest as the starting 

 point of the genesis of new species, and it would mean an 

 enormous progress towards the solution of the mystery of species- 

 formation if we succeeded in discovering the causes that lead 

 to it. 



Nowhere in the whole of Nature do we find such obvious 

 inclination to variations and race-formation as in domesticated 

 animals and plants. Long neglected by science, because to 

 deal with these 'unnatural' products of human self-interest 

 or fancy was almost regarded as a desecration of pure science, 

 they were chosen by Darwin as the basis of his epoch-making 

 investigations. 



The cause of the contempt felt by older investigators was of 

 a very different nature. Dogmatic supporters of the theory of 

 the immutability of the species did not know what to do with 

 these ' degenerate ' creatures which would in nowise fit into 

 their system. As happens very frequently, their mask of 

 contempt concealed a very real fear. No one denies to-day that 

 domesticated animals and plants are equally with their free- 

 living relatives entitled to our fullest interest, for the history of 

 domestication is the record of one of the most marvellous, 

 though unintentional, scientific experiments ever conducted. 

 Where is there another experiment undertaken with such a 

 wealth of material, and carried on during thousands of years ? 



There is no doubt that the first individuals of the human 

 species had no domesticated animals. The animal kingdom was 

 to the primitive man of interest only in so far as he had to 

 defend himself against the attacks of the larger carnivorous 

 animals, or as some supplied him with food and warm coverings. 

 Even throughout the Stone Age domestic animals appear to 

 have been unknown in Europe, for the most ancient and lowest 

 form of the descriptive arts, that of the cave-dwellers, shows 

 us only pictures of beasts of the chase scratched upon bones 

 with the point of a flint. Domestication is therefore obviously 



