VARIATION IN GENERAL 13 



wide, and their power to move independently of one another ie 

 so great that, according to the doctrine of probabilities, an almost 

 infinite variety of combinations is possible. Hence no two indi- 

 viduals are ever likely to be identical. We thus arrive at the 

 conclusion that the proper study of the breeder is not so much 

 the individual as it is the normal characters of the race to which 

 he belongs. 



SECTION V DOMINANT AND LATENT CHARACTERS 



The race as a whole clearly possesses more characters than can 

 ever be utilized in the visible make-up of any single individual. 

 Among all the colors of horses, but one, or at most two, can be 

 found in any special instance. The race is therefore a kind of 

 composite of all the individuals that compose it, or, more properly 

 speaking for purposes of study, it affords a wide assortment of 

 elements out of which individuals are composed. 



The individual transmits the characters of the race. If the 

 group of characters constituting a species is larger than that 

 constituting an individual, as with color among horses ; and if 

 an individual may transmit a character which (apparently) he does 

 not possess, and experience shows that he does, then it follows . 

 that the individual is in actual possession of more characters than 

 those directly involved in his visible make-up. 



For example, the offspring of two black horses will likely be 

 black, but it may be bay, brown, or any other color characteristic 

 of the horse kind. It is safe to say that it will not be red, green, 

 or blue, because these colors are known not to belong to the 

 horse kind, though all are freely found in nature. 



Milk secretion is confined to the female sex, yet a bull whose 

 dam is a heavy milker will transmit milking quality almost as 

 successfully as will a cow. In this instance the male transmits a 

 quality that he does not apparently possess and that could not 

 become functional in his case. 



From this we infer that the individual, whatever his particu- 

 lar make-up, transmits all the characters of the race, and none 

 other ; and that he is therefore possessed of all the racial char- 

 acters of his kind in some degree visible or potential. From 



