290 THE CROSSING, AC, OP PIGS. 



of long-beaked Tumblers, than it is with short-beaked 

 Carriers. Of course it is ; for, the aim of the breeder, 

 with the Tumblers, is to reduce the beak ;, and, when 

 this purpose is subserved by interbreeding, the breeder, 

 of course, cannot see, that any evil is produced. 



To show, that these " innate-tendency "-and-" great- 

 law-of-nature " breeders and philosophers actually ' 

 fancy, that they may, ad lib., normally mould the form 

 of an animal, as clay in the hands of the potter, the 

 following suffices (page 236, Vol, ii, Animals and 

 Plants, &c.) : 



" The eye has its fashion at different periods ; at one 

 time the eye high and outstanding from the head, and 

 at another the sleepy eye sunk into the head." 



The sleepy eye, sunk into the head, is both a struc- 

 tural, and a physiological defect. * When, then, inter- 

 breeding were to intensify such defect, Darwin would 

 naively note, that he could not see that interbreeding 

 injuriously affected the form of the animal. The ques- 

 tion, in all such cases of evil effect upon the form, is, 

 with Darwin, resolved into the inquiry, What is the 

 fashion ? , 



When a sow has not been bred in the strictest con- 

 formity to the English standard for the porcine form, — 

 which demands the greatest reduction, of all the char- 

 acters (save the fatj, that is consistent with the Pig's 

 existence, — it is possible for such sow to reproduce a 

 Pig. But, it is rather hard to expect the sow, — when 

 a lump of fat only, has left the impress of its force, 

 upon her reproductive element, — to effect such a dif- 

 ferentiation of parts, as is required for the formation of 



