STERILITY OF HYBRIDS. 421 



given species, — in acquiring, by reversion, or by cross- 

 ing (or by grafting), the positive peculiarities of the 

 other varieties. Is it not a farce, for him to adduce the 

 pouter pigeon, the fantail, and the tumbler, as " incipi- 

 ient species," becoming distinct species by divergence 

 of character, when the poor animals are almost com- 

 pletely sterile, and of a delicacy of constitution, due to 

 the absence, in each individual, of the other organs 

 and features possessed by the other varieties, and due 

 to the peculiarity of the variety, having been carried to 

 the extreme of development, without the concurrent 

 development of the other characters ? 



The degrees of lessened fertility, and of sterility, 

 among individuals of a species, trend in the wrong 

 direction for Darwin's conception of the sterility of 

 hybrids having been acquired. If the facts would but 

 course, in exactly the opposite direction, Darwin's 

 theory might have some semblance of probability, or 

 vestige of support. If, for instance, the sterility had 

 characterized the crossing of varieties, instead of the 

 interbreeding of the individuals of each variety; and, 

 if increase of fertility had marked the interbreeding, in- 

 stead of the crossing, of individuals of the varieties, 

 Darwin might have been justified in making light of 

 the objection of the sterility of hybrids. 



Professor Huxley (the gentleman who inculcates 

 Darwinism, as an axiom, to the workingmen of Eng- 

 land, and who teaches them resignation to their hard 

 lot, by revealing to them, that their misery is but a 

 beautiful exemplification of the grand, scientific prin- 

 ciple of Natural Extinction, which is so necessary to 

 36* 



