252 THE STATUS OF MAN. 



that those forces, which produce the automatic reduction of 

 the Potential variability of a group, will tend to nuUify the 

 influence of a minority. Unless therefore, the proportion of 

 undesirable individuals becomes greater than a certain mini- 

 mum, these individuals will eventually have no influence upon 

 the type of the group. And on the other hand, occasional super- 

 ior individuals have no future, and unless their proportion 

 to the total number can be brought up vey considerably, no 

 good wiU result from encouraging *them. 



As soon as we begin to make a comparison with animals the 

 question arises, do the breeders work by favouring the repro- 

 duction of the best animals and by discouraging the breeding 

 of the less desirable ones? A little later we will discuss the 

 question, whether this is the procedure in the development of 

 each breed. But first, can it be truly said that, let us say horses, 

 have been developed by this method, from which so many 

 authors await improvement in mankind? 



If the breeders of animals work in this vague way, breeding 

 from the best and as httle as possible from the less good, how 

 does it happen that so many different breeds of horses, of dogs, 

 of poultry exist? It would appear that, if this selection by man 

 of the best dogs were consistently followed, eventually all the 

 dogs, or at least aU the dogs of one region would approach to 

 the ideal tj^e. To take a concrete example. Breeders of Spitz- 

 dogs abhor cream-coloured animals. Is this a general rule in 

 dogs, that cream colour is undesirable? Evidently it is not, or 

 there would not exist breeds of dogs which are pure for just 

 this colour, which is so frowned upon in the Spitz. 



To any animal-breeder the idea that anyone should conceive 

 of an ideal dog, an ideal horse, and would propose to breed the 

 most from individuals nearest to this ideal, is inconceivable. 

 There is no ideal dog. There is however, an ideal Coach-dog, 

 or an ideal Grey-hound. There is an ideal Hunter and an ideal 

 Shetland pony, but there is no ideal horse. The whole group, 

 all those animals which are counted as horses in an agricultural 

 census, consists of several distinct breeds, plus some hybridized 



