72 PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS 



The second case is one of which you may find the whole 

 details in the " Philosophical Transactions" for the year 

 1813, in a paper communicated by Colonel Humphrey to 

 the President of the Royal Society, " On a new Variety 

 in the Breed of Sheep," giving an account of a very remark- 

 able breed of sheep, which at one time was well known in 

 the northern states of America, and which went by the 

 name of the Ancon or the Otter breed of sheep. In the 

 r 1791, there was a farmer of the name of Seth Wright 

 in Massachusetts, who had a flock of sheep, consisting of a 

 ram and, I think, of some twelve or thirteen ewes. Of this 

 flock of ewes, one at the breeding-time bore a lamb which 

 was very singularly formed ; it had a very long body, very 

 short legs, and those legs were bowed I I will tell you 

 by-and-by how this singular variation in the breed of 

 sheep came to be noted, and to have the prominence that 

 it now has. For the present, I mention only these two 

 cases ; but the extent of variation in the breed of animals 

 is perfectly obvious to any one who has studied natural 

 history with ordinary attention, or to any person who 

 compares animals with others of the same kind. It is 

 strictly true that there are never any two specimens which 

 are exactly alike ; however similar, they will always differ 

 in some certain particular. 



Now let us go back to Atavism, to the hereditary 

 tendency I spoke of. What will come of a variation when 

 you breed from it, when Atavism comes, if I may say so, 

 to intersect variation ? The two cases of which I have 

 mentioned the history, give a most excellent illustration 

 of what occurs. Gratio Kelleia, the Maltese, married when 

 he was twenty-two years of age, and, as I suppose there 

 \\ere no six-fingered ladies in Malta, he married an ordinary 

 livo-fingercd person. The result of that marriage was four 

 children ; the first, who was christened Salvator, had six 

 fingers and six toes, like his father ; the second was George, 

 who had five fingers and toes, but one of them was de- 

 formed, showing a tendency to variation ; the third was 

 Andre ; he had five fingers and five toes, quite perfect ; 

 the fourth was a girl, Marie ; she had five fingers and five 

 tors, but her thumbs were deformed, showing a tendency 

 towards the sixth. 



These children grew up, and when they came to adult 

 years, they all married, and of course it happened that 

 they all married five-fingered and five-toed persons. Now 



