446 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



recorded in the chapter on Pigeons and Fowls. These 

 animals not only display the greatest evil upon close- 

 interbreeding, but, — in conclusive refutation of Dar- 

 win's theory that the Pigeon and Fowl best illustrate 

 the divergence of character which (he fancies) evolves 

 varieties into species, — the further the varieties diverge, 

 the more sterile and weakened in constitution do they 

 become ! proving clearly that divergence of character 

 cannot result in the evolution of distinct species, for 

 the apportionment or separation of characters, which 

 it involves, is in derogation of the fertility and strength 

 of the individuals sa diverging, and comes soon to a 

 dead stop within a very short interval, owing to the 

 sterility and excessive delicacy of constitution which 

 the absence in each individual, of the characters which 

 form the peculiarities of the other varieties of the 

 same species, entails. 



b. Another of the modes of Man's Selection, which 

 vary the evil results, is that mode which, instead of — 

 or in addition to — re-developing lost or reduced char- 

 acters, continues the reduction or suppression of char- 

 acters of the species; thereby greatly modifying the 

 normal type which is the sum of the full and propor- 

 tionate development of all the positive characters of 

 the given species. 



This process of Man's Selection is exemplified in the 

 case of the Pig which — in what are esteemed the best, 

 domesticated breeds — has its snout reduced, the front 

 of its head short and concave, its bristles well-nigh 

 suppressed, its legs reduced to a size often incom- 

 patible not alone with locomotion, but with the very 



