496 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



and the modification is not to be regarded as deterioration but 

 rather as a beautiful and beneficent provision of nature to pre- 

 serve the life of the whole body by sacrificing some of tlie mem- 

 bers. The dwarf plants on the outskirts of a flora are not degene- 

 rated, but rather beautifully adapted to their unfortunate circum- 

 stances. 



To this explanation of the cause of variations, we must add 

 another idea. The plant has an additional office to perform be- 

 sides providing for its own welfare, to insure the succession of its 

 species. When it does more in one of these directions, it does less 

 in the other. While plants are growing rapidly they never form 

 fruit, and those means that encourage the formation of wood, dis- 

 courage that of fruit. So any one valuable product, as that of 

 seed in grass, is secured 'at the expense of some other, as that of 

 hay. 



What is true of plants in these respects, is also true of animals. 

 We may develope the typical animal in certain different direc- 

 tions, but not equally in all directions. Thus in man as reason 

 is developed, the organs of sense diminish, a fact on which the 

 test of Camper's facial angle is founded. The same is true in 

 dogs; the hound, a large muzzled variety, with broad nostrils, 

 that runs on scent, being the least intelligent of the race. 



For like reasons, we cannot breed both speed and strength into 

 the same animal; because speed requires long light muscles, for 

 the muscle, in any case, can contract through only one-third of 

 its length, while strength requires heavy muscles and stout bones. 



Again, these heavy muscles and stout bones require a large ab- 

 domen for their support, so that they go together. There are no 

 big bellied animals with long legs in nature. 



The Shanghai fowl having no wings of consequence, has no 

 breast, as the breast is composed in birds of the great muscles 

 that move the wings. For the same reason, it is under the ne- 

 cessity of using its legs the more in locomotion, so that they get 

 additional development to such extent as to become of no use for 

 fighting purposes, and the breed becomes the emblem of the cow- 

 ard, who runs away from danger rather than the fiery Hotspur 

 who courts it, as represented by the bold little bantam; when 



