Symmetry in Nature 



closely allied forms, reminds us forcibly of the 

 sad case of the boy whose tailor was his mother. 

 Humanum est errare : she made her son one 

 pair of trousers that fastened up behind, so that 

 the poor boy when wearing them never knew 

 whether he was going to or coming home from 

 school ! If animals are able to recognise their 

 mates, their bilateral symmetry does not seem 

 necessary to enable them to distinguish their 

 fellows from allied species. 



It is, indeed, true that asymmetrically marked 

 animals are very rarely seen in the wild state, 

 while they are the rule rather than the exception 

 among domesticated species. But this appears 

 to be due, not to the necessity of recognition 

 markings in nature, but to the fact that those 

 animals that display a tendency to massed pig- 

 ment perish in the struggle for existence, since 

 this massing of pigment appears to be correlated 

 with weakness of constitution. In other words, 

 this massing of pigment is an unfavourable varia- 

 tion, which under natural conditions dooms its 

 possessor. In the easier circumstances of domes- 

 tication, animals which are irregularly pigmented 

 are able to survive, so that, among them, the 

 almost universal tendency to the massing of pig- 

 ment can be followed without let or hindrance. 



It is unnecessary to say more upon this subject. 

 The few facts we have set forth suffice to destroy 

 this particular excrescence on the Darwinian theory. 

 R 257 



