302 



DARWINISM TO-DAY. 



the third lot was twenty-four hours behind the second. All the 

 individuals of the first lot had finished moulting on April 20, all 

 of the second on April 24, while the moulting in the third lot con- 

 tinued until April 29. 



"As in the matter of weight, this retarding of the functions, by 

 means of a reduced food supply, affects not only the immediate 

 generation which is subjected to the famine, but the lingering effects 

 of it may be traced in the progeny of the dwarfed individuals at 

 least unto the third generation, even though two years of plenty 

 follow the one year of famine. The conditions which obtain in 

 each lot of individuals of the 1903 generation at spinning time are 

 shown in the accompanying table, which is based upon polygons 

 erected to include all the individuals in each lot. 



"This period in the life of the silkworms is particularly advan- 

 tageous for consideration here, because it marks the completion 

 of the feeding, so that the individuals of under-fed ancestry have 

 been given the best chance to recover, while those subject to altered 

 food conditions, had had the benefit of the alteration during the 

 entire food-taking period of life. 



"In the table, 'O' means optimum amount of food, and 'S' means 

 short rations. To the right of the history of the lots is a section 

 showing the rank of the lots as to the extreme time limits of the 

 spinning time (emphasised congenital differences again), with a 

 safer criterion, as to their relative promptness, in the column be- 

 tween the extremes a column of figures intended to show the rela- 

 tive promptness with which a two-thirds majority of the larvae 



