Permanence and Evolution. n 



feet state of knowledge, to drop altogether the 

 use of a word which has become so pretentiously 

 indefinite, and which savours so much of the 

 empty and misleading abstractions of the school- 

 men, and to limit ourselves to facts known or 

 ascertainable to speak of races, breeds, or 

 forms, and to ascertain directly or by analogy 

 the permanence or impermanence of each 

 separate breed or of each particular character, 

 with as little importation of doubtful and ex- 

 traneous consideration as possible.* 



* So Huxley, Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1880, p. 286. 

 " As for species no one zoologist has ever yet agreed with the 

 estimate of another as to what should be considered species, 

 and what local varieties among Wolves and Foxes ; and as there 

 is no criterion by which the question can be decided, it is 

 probable that such agreement can never be attained. The sug- 

 gestion that it may be as well to give up the attempt to define 

 species, and to content oneself with recording the varieties of 

 pelage and stature which accompany a definable type of skeletal 

 and dental structure in the geographical district in which the 

 latter is indigenous, may be regarded as revolutionary; but I 

 am inclined to think that sooner or later we shall have to adopt it." 



