122 REVERSION, NOT A LAW, SUI GENERIS. • 



pigeon, each, possessed of a character, of the species, 

 which the others lack ? and" does not each such variety 

 lack all of those characters of the same species, which 

 respectively constitute the peculiarities of the other 

 varieties ? Is not, then, " the coordinating power of 

 the organization " impaired, by such great increase of 

 the one part, and by the suppression of the other 

 parts ? Does not the reduction in the pig, of the 

 snout, tusks, bristles, legs, tail, &c, militate against 

 this ."tendency" of "the coordinating power of the 

 organization," " to bring all the parts again into 

 harmony with each other ?" Assuredly, the evil 

 results from close-interbreeding the individuals of 

 these varieties, would imply as much ; and, the decline 

 in the measure of those evil effects, when the individ- 

 uals have all the parts again brought into harmony 

 with each other, looks as if the principle of his, above 

 quoted, was pregnant with more consequences than he 

 has anticipated. Upon what hypothesis, other than 

 that, which holds it necessary to have all of the charac- 

 ters, of a species, developed in each individual, is this 

 " coordinating power of the organization," to be ex- 

 plained ? This coordinating power is the bond, whfch 

 links all the parts of the species together; and, it 

 operates, in Reversion, by again bringing them to- 

 gether, when they have been lost. The same principle 

 holds good, in the slightest wound, and in interstitial 

 waste; the coordinating power reintegrates the parts, 

 and restores the type of the species ; and, all of these 

 powers are but different phases of the one process of 

 coordination. 



