186 THE FORMATION OP VARIETIES. 



duced. Its tail is infinitesimal in character; and the 

 whole plan of the organization of the animal, seems to' 

 have been resolved into a mere barrel of fat. Darwin, 

 in an ecstacy of admiration, at the signal triumph 

 achieved, in these animals, by means of selection, 

 terms them, "wonderfully improved." He says (p. 

 283, Vol. ii) : 



"Our wonderfully improved pigs could never have 

 been formed, if they had been forced to search for 

 their own food." 



He says (p. 360, Vol. ii) : 



"Nathusius has shown, that, with the improved 

 races of the pig, the shortened legs and snout, the 

 form of the auricular condyles, of the occiput, and the 

 position of the jaws, with the upper canine teeth pro- 

 jecting in a most anomalous manner in front of the 

 lower canines, may be attributed to these parts not 

 having been fully exercised. For, the highly culti- 

 vated races do not travel in search of food, nor root up 

 the ground with their ringed muzzles." 



"Again," he says (236, Vol. ii), " hear what an excel- 

 lent judge of pigs, says : ' The legs should be no longer 

 than just to prevent the animal's belly from trailing on 

 the ground. The leg is the least profitable (!) portion 

 of the hog, and we therefore require no more of it than 

 is absolutely necessary for the support of the rest.' 

 Let any one compare the wild boar with any im- 

 proved breed, and he will see how effectually the legs 

 have been shortened." 



With horses, sheep, and cows, all of the characters 

 of the respective species, are generally re-developed, 

 in each variety; although in all of the varieties, the 

 perfect proportion of the characters is, in a greater or 

 less degree, absent. 



