7i PERPETUATION OF LIVING BEINGS 



to the perpetuation of a variation. Here it is certainly 

 a variation which carried with it no use or benefit ; and 

 yet you see the tendency to perpetuation may be so strong, 

 that, notwithstanding a great admixture of pure blood, 

 the variety continues itself up to the third generation, 

 which is largely marked with it. In this case, as I have 

 said, there was no means of the second generation inter- 

 marrying with any but five-fingered persons, and the 

 question naturally suggests itself, What would have been 

 the result of such marriage ? Reaumur narrates this case 

 only as far as the third generation. Certainly it would 

 have been an exceedingly curious thing if we could have 

 traced this matter any further; had the cousins inter- 

 married, a six-fingered variety of the human race might 

 have been set up. 



To show you that this supposition is by no means an 

 unreasonable one, let me now point out what took place 

 in the case of Seth Wright's sheep, where it happened to 

 be a matter of moment to him to obtain a breed or raise a 

 flock of sheep like that accidental variety that I have 

 described and I will tell you why. In that part of 

 Massachusetts where Seth Wright was living, the fields 

 were separated by fences, and the sheep, which were very 

 active and robust, would roam abroad, and without much 

 difficulty jump over these fences into other people's farms. 

 As a matter of course, this exuberant activity on the part 

 of the sheep constantly gave rise to all sorts of quarrels, 

 bickerings, and contentions among the farmers of the 

 neighbourhood ; so it occurred to Seth Wright, who was. 

 like his successors, more or less 'cute, that if he could get a 

 stock of sheep like those with the bandy legs, they would 

 not be able to jump over the fences so readily, and he acted 

 upon that idea. lie killed his old ram, and as soon as the 

 young one arrived at maturity, he bred altogether from it. 

 'i lie result was even more striking than in the human 

 rimenl which I mentioned just now. Colonel Hum- 

 phreys testifies that it always happened thai the offspring 

 it her pure Ancons or pure ordinary sheep ; that in 

 no case was there any mixing of the Ancons with the others. 

 In consequence of this, in the course of a very few years, 

 the farmer was able to get a very considerable flock of this 

 variety, and a large number of them were spread throughout 

 Massachusetts. Most unfortunately, however I suppose 

 it was because they were so common- nobody took enough 



