64 VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 



Continuing, he says : 



"' I can see no more abstract improbability in a ten- 

 dency to produce any character, being inherited for an 

 endless (!) number of generations, than in quite use- 

 less and rudimentary organs, being as we all know 

 them to be, thus inherited. Indeed, we may some- 

 times observe that a mere tendency to produce a rudi- 

 ment, is inherited." 



Again, on p. 27, Origin of Species, he says : 



"When there has been no cross with a distinct 

 breed, and there is a tendency in both parents to re- 

 vert to a character which has been lost, during some 

 former generation, this" tendency, for all that we can 

 see to the contrary, may be transmitted, undiminished, 

 for an indefinite number of generations." 



On page 446, Vol. ii, Animals and Plants, &c, he 

 says: 



" What can be more wonderful, than that characters 

 which have disappeared during scores, or hundreds, or 

 even thousands (!) of generations, should suddenly re- 

 appear, perfectly developed, as in the case of pigeons 

 and fowls." 



The characters lost, do not, in any wise, lie within 

 the organisms, during the interval before their reap- 

 pearance. The forces of the organization are, when 

 all the characters are fully and proportionately devel- 

 oped, beautifully correlated together, making one, 

 determinate coordination. When a character is lost, 

 the forces so correlated, are capable of reintegrating 

 the lost part, and of restoring the mutual relations of 

 the parts ; if the conditions will allow. Cut off the 

 edge of a crystal ; the crystal may remain, so impaired, 



