136 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



foals, one of them 24 hours old, who all showed this reversed area. 

 Here then are ten examples of undoubted transmission of the 

 effects of pressure by harness in subjects so young as to be still 

 suclded by their dams, and, of course, never themselves touched 

 by such pressure. I submit that even one such unmistakable 

 example would be enough to prove the case, and that the necessary 

 conditions of a rigorous undesigned experiment by man have been 

 fulfilled. 



Objections. 



At the end of this chapter which concludes the facts of the 

 case I think it may serve to make the position a little clearer if 

 I state objections which have been or might be raised. 



It will not escape the mind of any person who has followed 

 critically this process of inquiry, that in Chapter VII, where the 

 immense variety of the patterns found on the side of the horse's 

 neck are described, there is an apparent resemblance between them 

 and those on the ventral or under surface of the neck. The former 

 were shown to be due to natural forces, those of sustained and 

 repeated underlying muscular traction of muscles and jolting of the 

 neck in locomotion ; whereas in this chapter a considerable number 

 of patterns have been brought forward and pictured on the under 

 surface, and these are attributed to artificial pressure from harness. 

 The reasonable objection is raised, "Why should the former be 

 considered natural and the latter artificial in their origin ? " 



The answer to this is supplied by a consideration of the muscles 

 shown in the two contrasted regions. In Figs. 3, 4 and 5, the 

 muscles of the side of the neck are shown to be reniarkabty strong 

 and numerous (in three layers), and diverging in their directions. In 

 the muscles of the under surface of the neck of the horse, see Fig. 12, 

 the muscles of the two sides shown are nearly parallel and no 

 conflict of opposing or diverging muscles can well take place in this 

 " debateable land." If there were much divergent or opposing 

 action going on it would, of course, produce the effects on the hair 

 towards the upper part of the neck, where the muscles tend to 

 diverge more and more as they pass to the head, and I have stated 

 above that not a single instance in many thousands of horses has 

 been found above the level where a loose collar ceases to rub when 

 jolted upwards. This is ver}' conclusive on the matter of diverging 

 or opposing muscular action. 



Then again the jolting in locomotion, which, in the case of 

 the side of the neck is probably more effectual in producing changes 

 of hair than even muscular traction, is almost absent from the under 



