98 VARIATIONS, DUE TO REVERSION. 



The facts, quoted from Darwin, show that the im- 

 provements, or variations, in each species, are but the 

 regain, partial or complete, of an original, normal con- 

 dition of such species. 



On page 447, Vol. ii, he says: 



"-In every living creature, we may feel assured, that 

 a host of lost characters lie ready to be evolved under 

 proper conditions. How can we make intelligible, and 

 connect with other facts, this wonderful and common 

 capacity of reversion, — this power of calling back to 

 life long-lost characters?" 



When he speaks of a "host" of characters, latent in 

 each individual, he is rather overstating the case. But, 

 it places his theory of evolution in a bad light, for it 

 proves that Natural Selection has been engaged in the 

 past, in degenerating organisms, instead of develop- 

 ing them; and, that "the strongest, fittest, and most 

 vigorous," which Natural Selection is said to have 

 preserved, were, instead of being the better for the 

 Struggle for Existence, in a condition only to con- 

 gratulate themselves, that they were not so completely 

 used up, as were the weakest, which succumbed. 



There are not a "host" of such lost characters, in 

 each individual. That is a mere speculative assump- 

 tion, with Darwin. But, there were a certain number 

 of characters which each species lost under nature, 

 and those characters are represented, in part, by the 

 improvements which arise in each such species under 

 domestication, and at intervals under nature. Even 

 according to Darwin's own showing, there is not a 

 scintilla of evidence, going to prove that one, single, 



