274 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



though more freely in the offspring of those subjected to 

 special causes of constitutional disturbance. Mr. Darwin 

 has further proved that these slight variations can be 

 transmitted and intensified by selective breeding." 



Mr. Darwin did, indeed, follow Buffon and Lamarck 

 in at once turning to animals and plants under domes- 

 tication in order to bring the plasticity of organic 

 forms more easily home to his readers, but the fact 

 that variations can be transmitted and intensified by 

 selective breeding had been so well established and 

 was so widely known long before Mr. Darwin was 

 born, that he can no more be said to have proved it 

 than Newton can be said to have proved the revolution 

 of the earth on its own axis. Every breeder through- 

 out the world had known it for centuries. I believe 

 even Virgil knew it. 



"They have," continues Professor Eay Lankester, 

 " in reference to breeding, a remarkably tenacious, per- 

 sistent character, as might be expected from their 

 origin in connection with the reproductive process." 



The variations do not normally " originate in con- 

 nection with the reproductive process," though it is 

 during this process that they receive organic expres- 

 sion. They originate mainly, so far as anything origi- 

 nates anywhere, in the life of the parent or parents. 

 Without going so far as to say that no variation can 

 arise in connection with the reproductive system — for, 

 doubtless, striking and successful sports do occasionally 

 so arise — it is more probable that the majority origi- 

 nate earlier. Professor Eay Lankester proceeds : — 



" On the other hand, mutilations and other effects 



