THE CROSSING, 4C, OF CATTLE, ET AL. 319 



If an organism has all of its features, proportionately- 

 reduced, the' evil entailed, will be less, than if some 

 only of its characters are reduced ; for, the balance is, in 

 the former case, immeasurably less disturbed. But, even 

 when the proportion is preserved as well as may be, in 

 the reduction of the animal's size, evil results, because 

 perfect proportion is incompatible with any reduction ; 

 for, the tissue which filled the interstitial spaces, is 

 wanting, and full functional play of the several organs 

 of the body, is inconsistent with any reduction. The 

 evil effects, entailed by a measurably proportionate 

 reduction of all the characters, are inappreciable, and 

 infinitesimal, when compared with the injury effected 

 by disproportionate development, such as is occasioned 

 by the loss of some characters, or the greater, or less 

 reduction of some only of the features. In the first 

 case, viz., of proportionate reduction, the evils would 

 begin to manifest themselves, only after long-continued 

 (say, a score of generations of) close-interbreeding of 

 the nearest relatives. In the second case, viz., of dis- 

 proportionate development, the evils would begin to 

 display themselves, in the first stage of interbreeding, 

 either, with the furthest removed individuals of the 

 same variety, or with individuals in the relation of 

 cousins, or of father and daughter, or of brother and 

 sister; or after several generations of interbreeding, in 

 any of the degrees of relationship ; according to the 

 degree of such disproportionate development. 



An individual may be twice, or thrice, the size of its 

 fellows, and have most of its organs twice, or thrice 

 the size they are, in others of its species ; yet, if one of 



