VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 69 



his works ! To all seeming, he thought it discreet to 

 advance that point in his theory, by implication solely. 

 If he had explicitly stated, that all the characters 

 which arise in each individual, and which did not 

 characterize that individual's immediate parents, are 

 long-lost characters reappearing by Reversion, the 

 fallacy of his theory would immediately have become 

 glaring. For, if each and every variation, or improve- 

 ment, is but the regain of what was once lost, it is, 

 then, an unavoidable corollary, that variation has a 

 limit, which will be reached in each individual, when 

 all of its lost characters are regained. All of the im- 

 provements, which were assumed to be increments of 

 evolution, obeying those mysterious laws, " innate ten- 

 dency," and " spontaneous variability," are then, mani- 

 festly, to be relegated to that known, well-established, 

 scientific factor, Reversion. 



Continuing his remarks, respecting the reappearance 

 of long-lost characters, which is occasioned by Cross- 

 ing, he says, "As this conclusion seems to me highly 

 curious and novel, I will give the evidence in detail." 

 He then gives numerous instances with the pigeon, 

 with the fowl, with the duck, with the rabbit, with the 

 cow, with the horse, and with the ass ; and says : 



" It would appear, that, with crossed animals, a simi- 

 lar tendency to the recovery of lost characters, holds 

 good with instincts ;" 



And gives instances, in the case of the fowl, of cat- 

 tle, of the pig, of the duck, of the horse, and of the 

 ass. Everything is " highly curious," with him, as it 



must be, with every scientist, who essays to colligate 

 7 



