LARGE VARIATIONS 101 



the tendency to large variations is a variation away from 

 the mean of the race. It tends to be eliminated by bi- 

 parental reproduction. 1 As large variations are comparatively 

 rare, it must be very unusual that they should occur in the 

 direction of more accurate adaptations. It must also be 

 remembered that domesticated races live under artificial 

 conditions. Natural selection, therefore, must generally 

 also tend to eliminate large variations. The property of 

 exhibiting large variations must at any rate be rigidly 

 limited by natural selection and bi-parental reproduction 

 in the vast majority of organisms living under natural 

 conditions. In domesticated races, however, man has 

 eliminated the effects of both bi-parental reproduction and 

 natural selection in this direction, and it is therefore not 

 surprising that they commonly exhibit large variations, 

 and that these large variations or mutations are preserved 

 when man so wishes. 



1 See p. 124 tqq., where the effect of bi-parental reproduction is fully 

 discussed. 



