" CONTRE-EVOL UTION " 199 



is almost certain," he says (loc. cit., p. 112) " that abundant food 

 given during many generations directly affects the size of a 

 breed." 



Surely the same is true in the case of abundant food " taken " 

 by a species in Nature, more especially so if there is a lack of 

 habitual counter-services. Had " selection " not been so dear 

 to Darwin's heart, had he fully appreciated the importance of 

 the f/w ratio, he would, no doubt, have come to realise that 

 artificial selection is too closely associated with Pathogenesis 

 to exemplify the process of normal evolution . 



He would have realised the extreme physiological importance 

 of the bio-economic nexus existing between organisms, be it 

 on the small or on the large scale of Nature. Darwin was 

 evidently greatly struck by the bad effects, extending even to the 

 anatomy of the creature, of surfeit, confinement, and one-sided 

 exploitation of organism by organism, as evinced by the case of. 

 Domestication. Thus he notes the elongation of the skull 

 relatively to its breadth, and the antithesis between size of brain 

 and of body developments obviously analogous to those seen 

 in the monstrous types in Nature. He states (p. 143) : 



The explanation seems to lie in the circumstance that during a number 

 of generations the artificial races have been closely confined, and have 

 had little occasion to exert either their senses, or intellect, or voluntary 

 muscles ; consequently the brain, as we shall presently more fully see, 

 has not increased, the bony case enclosing it has not increased, and this- 

 has evidently affected through correlation the breadth of the entire skull 

 from end to end, 

 And again (p. 157) : 



We thus see that the most important and complicated organ in the- 

 whole organisation is subject to the law of decrease in size from disuse. 



To " disuse " we must now, however, add " misuse." With 

 this addendum it is fairly obvious that there is a unity of 

 disease, be it in the case of monstrosity in Nature, or in Domesti- 

 cation, as exemplified by Darwin's findings. In either case 

 we have a perverted f/w ratio, with the implied divorce from 

 Symbiosis. If he does not provide instances of ossification, Darwin 

 at any rate shows that by way of correlation every suture in the 

 skull as well as the form of the lower jaw (asymmetry of the 

 condyles) is often greatly affected in Domestication. " How 

 erroneous," he exclaims, " to say that only parts of slight 

 importance become modified under domestication." Yes, but 

 above all it is necessary to recognise that for the most part 



