86 CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE 



v.hich arc characteristic of Hie original wild stock, the 

 Hock Pigeon. 



Now, this is certainly a very remarkable circumstance ; 

 hut I do not see myself how it tells very strongly either 

 one way or the other. I think, in fact, that this argument 

 in favour of recurrence to the primitive type might prove 

 a great deal too much for those who so constantly bring 

 it forward. For example, Mr. Darwin has very forcibly 

 urged, that nothing is commoner than if you examine a dun 

 horse and I had an opportunity of verifying this illustra- 

 tion lately, while in the islands of the West Highlands, 

 where there are a great many dun horses to find that 

 horse exhibit a long black stripe down his back, very often 

 stripes on his shoulder, and very often stripes on his legs. 

 I, myself, saw a pony of this description a short time ago, 

 in a baker's cart, near Rothesay, in Bute : it had the long 

 stripe down the back, and stripes on the shoulders and legs, 

 just like those of the Ass, the Quagga, and the Zebra. 

 Now, if we interpret the theory of recurrence as applied to 

 this case, might it not be said that here was a case of a 

 variation exhibiting the characters and conditions of an 

 animal occupying something like an intermediate position 

 between the Horse, the Ass, the Quagga, and the Zebra, 

 and from which these had been developed ? In the same 

 way with regard even to Man. Every anatomist will tell 

 you that there is nothing commoner, in dissecting the human 

 body, than to meet with what are called muscular variations 

 that is, if you dissect two bodies very carefully, you will 

 probably find that the modes of attachment and insertion 

 of the muscles are not exactly the same in both, there 

 la-ing pieat peculiarities in the mode in which the muscles 

 are arranged ; and it is very singular, that in some dis- 

 sections of the human body you will come upon arrange- 

 ments of the muscles very similar indeed to the same parts 

 in the Apes. Is the conclusion in that case to be, that 

 this is like the black bars in the case of the Pigeon, and that 

 it indicates a recurrence to the primitive type from which the 



:nals have been probably developed? Truly, I think 

 that the opponents of modification and variation had 

 better leave the argument of recurrence alone, or it may 

 prove altogether too strong for them. 



To sum up, the evidence as far as we have gone is 

 against the argument as to any limit to divergences, so far 

 as structure is concerned ; and in favour of a physiological 



