442 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



characters which, Darwin shows, have been so wholly- 

 suppressed that not a vestige of their past development 

 now remains. 



Fifth: This degeneration is shown by the many 

 "latent" characters and organs, "proper to both the 

 right and left sides of the body, and to a long line of 

 male and female ancestors," which lie, according to 

 Darwin, within every organism, and which need only 

 the proper conditions, to reappear. 



Sixth: This degeneration is shown by the number- 

 less characters which Darwin ascribes to- Reversion — 

 Reversion necessarily implying, as Darwin admits, 

 past reduction or suppression of the characters which 

 now revert. 



12. The next induction is, That all of the positive 

 Variations, or improvements, in each species, are due 

 . to the mere regain of the characters which were lost 

 or reduced in such species, under nature; and that 

 they are limited, therefore, in number and kind to the 

 number and kind of the characters so lost or reduced, 

 under nature. 



Warrant for this is found 



First: In the previous proposition, and in the proofs 

 adduced in support thereof. 



Second: In the numberless instances where Varia- 

 tions are ascribed, by Darwin, to Reversion, the ex- 

 ceptions being rare where he does not thus account 

 for the phenomena of variation. 



Third: In Darwin's admission that all Variations 

 are susceptible of such explanation, his only objection 

 being that they must at some time have arisen as new 



