54 VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 



in an imperfect manner, how it is possible for a charac- 

 ter possessed by some remote ancestor, to reappear in 

 the offspring." (P. 428, Vol.. ii, Animals and Plants, &c.) 



" I have stated that the most probable hypothesis to 

 account for the reappearance of very ancient charac- 

 ters, is, that there is a tendency in the young of each 

 successive generation, to produce the long-lost charac- 

 ters ; and that this tendency, from some unknown cause, 

 sometimes prevails." 



" It would be difficult to name one of the higher 

 animals, in which some organ is not in a rudimentary 

 condition." (P. 353, Origin of Species) 



By this, of course, he means " an organ which has 

 been perfectly developed in some remote ancestor," 

 and subequently suppressed. When, however, he is 

 treating of variations which are due to the reappear- 

 ance of these characters, under domestication, all rec- 

 ollection of what he here alleges, seems to forsake 

 him; and he professes himself unable to account for 

 them. He says, unqualifiedly, without distinction, 

 that he is ignorant of the cause of the appearance of 

 variations. As, in his search for the law of variations, 

 he conveniently forgets these reduced and suppressed 

 organs, and is so strangely obtuse to the fact, that they 

 amply supply the cause for which he affects to seek, 

 there exist, to his seeming, no objection to his settling 

 down to the conviction, that variations are inexplicable ; 

 and no reason why he should not assume, that these 

 variations or improvements go on multiplying, indefi- 

 nitely, or forever. If, however, the variations are to be 

 explained by the reappearance of long lost characters 

 of the respective species, it is obvious that there must 



