i88 SYMBIOSIS 



That " selection " very generally induces, not genuine 

 improvement, but, on the contrary, disease and degeneration, 

 is acknowledged by the author thus : 



on cree forcement des adaptations nouvelles par les changements de 

 milieu et de regime, de suralimentation, etc. On provoque intentionelle- 

 ment des specialisations unilaterales excessives : le developpement exa- 

 gere du systeme musculaire, pour la production de la viande chez les Bovid6s, 

 pour favoriser la course chez les Equides, etc. C'est ainsi qu'on a singu- 

 lierement multipli6 la tuberculose des Bovides " trop ameliores" ce 

 qui, en langage biologique, doit se traduire par " trop specialises." Et 

 parfois des laureats de concours agricoles ont ete saisis a 1'abattoir comme 

 viande tuberculeuse. Le fait s'est produit, notamment, il y a une quin- 

 zaines d'annees, pour le taureau, laureat du grand prix du concours general 

 de Paris. Tant il est vrai que la Roche Tarpeienne est pres du Capitole ! 



Jean Jacques Rousseau would have told us that we have 

 here mainly an instance of bad biological behaviour on the part 

 of man. His modern countryman, albeit with much greater 

 erudition, or, perhaps, because of this, endeavours to explain 

 the biology of the case by a vague and semi-sociological term, 

 whilst at the same time implicitly denying the sociological factor. 

 If we were at least told wherein normal " specialisation " 

 consists ! The morale of the case seems to be mainly this, that 

 " suralimentation " of one kind or another produces morbid 

 growth and monstrosity, be it in Nature or in Domestication. 

 If History was to be invoked at all, in interpretation of the 

 "laureate's " fate, then it should have been shown that the mon- 

 ster's " misere," if not entirely self-caused, was yet typical of the 

 retribution befalling those types which from whatever cause 

 indulge in acromegalic habits and desires. We are further told: 



Mais il arrive non moins souvent que, sans devenir tuberculeux, ces 

 memes animaux, purement selectionnes, degenerent neanmoins par suite 

 du simple changement des conditions biologiques (nourriture trop sub- 

 stantielle, etc.), auquelles on les soumet, et perdent plus ou moins leurs 

 qualites reproductrices. 



A fortiori should this observation have caused the author to 

 pause and to consider the importance of feeding in degeneration. 

 It might have struck him that the same cause which is so potent 

 in the rapid degeneration of domesticated races, though Tuber- 

 culosis be absent, may be, in some way or another, the chief cause 

 of the gradual degeneration of races in Nature. It might have 

 struck him that there remained as yet some important laws of 

 nutrition to be enunciated. Instead of which, all we get is the 



