CHAPTER III. 



The Variations, or Improvements, in each Species, Lim- 

 ited in Number and Kind to the Number and Kind 

 of the Characters previously Lost by such Species, 

 under Nature : or, the Law of Reversion. 



There is no principle, or law, in the whole domain of 

 Natural Histoiy, which Darwin so conclusively estab- 

 lishes, and which is attested by such a multitude of 

 proofs, as what is known as the law of positive Rever- 

 sion ; or, the principle that each species, under nature, 

 has suffered greatly from the effects of the Struggle for 

 Existence, and has lost many characters, features or 

 organs; and that when, as under domestication, the 

 conditions of the individuals' environment are propi- 

 tious, those lost characters, features, and organs reap- 

 pear. 



This law militates against the hypothesis of Dar- 

 winism, in two ways, First, a converse theory is 

 deducible therefrom, which explains all of the phe- 

 nomena, and so apportions the facts among Darwin's 

 scientific factors, as to preclude the necessity of referring 

 any of them to such confessedly objectionable entities 

 as an "innate tendency," "a spontaneous variability," 

 "a law of nature," "vital force," "nature and constitu- 

 tion of the being,' 7 etc. Second, this law conclusively 



negatives Darwin's gratuitous assumption, that varia- 

 (48) 



