212 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



The tendency to variation shown in the introduction of 

 these peculiarities, even though they may have been even- 

 tually eradicated, is worth noticing in its bearing on cur 

 views respecting the formation of new and persistent 

 varieties of the human as of other races. It must be noticed 

 that in the case of the human race the conditions not only 

 do not favour the continuance of such varieties, but practi- 

 cally forbid their persistence. It is otherwise with some 

 varieties, at least, of domestic animals, insomuch that varie- 

 ties which present any noteworthy even though accidentally 

 observed advantage have been made practically persistent ; we 

 say practically, because there seems little reason to doubt that 

 in every case which has hitherto been observed the normal 

 type would eventually be reverted to if special pains were 

 not taken to separate the normal from the abnormal form. 



An excellent illustration of the difference between the 

 human race and a race of animals under domestication, in 

 this particular respect, is found in the case of the Kelleia 

 family on the one hand, and that of the Ancon or Otter 

 sheep on the other. 



The former case is described by Re'aumur. A Maltese 

 couple named Kelleia, whose hands and feet were of the 

 ordinary type, had a son Gratio who had six movable 

 fingers on each hand and six somewhat less perfect toes on 

 each foot Gratio Kelleia married a woman possessing only 

 the ordinary number of fingers and toes. There were four 

 children of this marriage Sal vator, George, Andre', and Marie. 

 Salvator had six fingers and six toes like the father ; George 

 and Andre had each five fingers and five toes like the mother, 

 but the hands and feet of George were slightly deformed ; 

 Marie had five fingers and five toes, but her thumbs were 

 slightly deformed. All four children grew up, and married 

 folk with the ordinary number of fingers and toes. The 

 children of Andre alone (who were many) were without ex- 

 ception of the normal type, like their father. The children 

 of Salvator, who alone was six-fingered and six-toed like 

 Gratio the grandfather, were four in number ; three of them 



