220 HEREDITARY CHARACTERS 



theories is so to regulate competition, that every one shall 

 live in comfort and comparative ease, irrespective of the 

 relative capacity of individuals. Competition constitutes a 

 very effective mode of selection, and if selection ceases, all 

 the available evidence shows in the clearest manner possible 

 that regression, that is, the disappearance of characters, 

 follows. The race that limits competition so that indi- 

 viduals possessing advantageous characters do not succeed 

 better in the struggle of life than their less gifted fellows, 

 must regress, and will fail in that struggle between races 

 which exists just as really as does the struggle between 

 individuals. Man's greatest and infinitely most important 

 inborn character is the capacity for making acquirements. 

 It is just this character which would suffer most did 

 selection, that is, competition, cease. 



The bearing of the fact that some characters are trans- 

 mitted in an alternative manner has an important bearing 

 upon the breeding of domesticated races. In the case of plants 

 the application of this knowledge is comparatively easy. In 

 animals, however, it must be regarded as more or less prob- 

 lematical, and will certainly be much more difficult. In 

 mammals and birds characters are so complicated and inter- 

 dependent, that in many, perhaps in most cases, they can- 

 not be dealt with individually. Taking the racehorse as 

 an illustration. Speed and staying powers are the two 

 characters cultivated by the breeder. These are not two 

 separate characters, but the manifestations of a host of other 

 characters, involving bone, muscle, internal organs, and a 

 capacity for making acquirements. It is the same with 

 most desirable qualities in domesticated animals, and time 

 and experiment alone can show how far the application of 

 the knowledge derived from Mendel's experiments will be of 

 service to the breeder. In the case of the larger domesti- 

 cated animals a long time is necessary to produce a number 

 of generations, and accurate statistics cannot be hoped for in 

 so short a time as in the case of plants or of such short-lived 

 animals as mice. 



