112 THE CAMEL 



after generation, awaiting a favourable opportunity to 

 herald it forth. Only by such a supposition can we 

 explain the commonly observed fact of inheritance from 

 remote ancestors, or, as Darwin termed it, atavism.' 



This will readily enable us to understand that every 

 being, human or animal, which comes into a state of 

 existence has blended and infused into its organism a 

 number of issues of remote, or at all events previous, 

 actions. In other words, this new evolution is not in 

 the strict sense of the word new, for it has received 

 from its progenitors, through generations or even ages, 

 certain specialities or peculiarities a, legacy, in fact, 

 either of health or infirmity, mental or physical, 

 tendencies to which will develop themselves during 

 growth from infancy to maturity, earlier or later, some- 

 times at a slow, sometimes at an accelerated rate, or 

 which may be dormant for a generation or more, 

 showing themselves in the offspring with marked 

 development, according to circumstances and con- 

 ditions. 



Breeding If we clearly understand this, we will readily 



a science ac ^ now i e ^g e that the question of breeding is a science 

 in itself, but that we cannot reduce it to such without 

 taking into consideration the above vital principles. 

 We have seen that an infusion of new blood is an 

 absolute necessity to prevent degeneracy, and I have 

 endeavoured to explain that countless centuries of inter- 

 breeding, and the transmission of inferior tendencies, 

 have reduced the camel to a state of helpless organic 

 inbecility which will require all the artificial aid of 

 science to restore and improve. And when we have 

 improved the physical condition, an advancement in 



