Xi PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 425 



is called RECURRENT E the tendency of races 

 which have been developed by selective breeding 

 from varieties to return to their primitive type. 

 This is supposed by many to put an absolute limit 

 to the extent of selective and all other variations. 

 People say, " It is all very well to talk about pro- 

 ducing these different races, but you know very 

 well that if you turned all these birds wild, these 

 Pouters, and Carriers, and so on, they would all re- 

 turn to their primitive stock." This is very com- 

 monly assumed to be a fact, and it is an argument 

 that is commonly brought forward as conclusive ; 

 but if you will take the trouble to inquire into it 

 rather closely, I think you will find that it is not 

 worth very much. The first question of course is, 

 Do they thus return to the primitive stock ? And 

 commonly as the thing is assumed and accepted, 

 it is extremely difficult to get anything like good 

 evidence of it. It is constantly said, for example, 

 that if domesticated Horses are turned wild, as 

 they have been in some parts of Asia Minor and 

 South America, that they return at once to the 

 primitive stock from which they were bred. But 

 the first answer that you make to this assumption 

 is, to ask who knows what the primitive stock 

 was ; and the second answer is, that in that case 

 the wild Horses of Asia Minor ought to be exactly 

 like the wild Horses of South America. If they 

 are both like the same thing, they ought mani- 

 festly to be like each other ! The best authorities, 



