CONCLUDING REMARKS. 441 



support of the animal, and its tusks almost oblitera- 

 ted. 



In consequence of this degeneration, the interbreed- 

 ing of individuals of the domesticated breeds is preg- 

 nant (as has been shown) with very great loss of fer- 

 tility and of constitutional vigor; greater, in fact (as 

 Darwin shows, unconscious as he is of the reason), than 

 in the case of any other large animal; greater, in fact, 

 than with any other animals, save, perhaps the Pigeon 

 in which the true principles of development, have been 

 equally outraged, only in a somewhat different way. 

 On the other hand, in the interbreeding of the least 

 well-bred animals of this species (the Pig), the evil 

 results, owing to the nearer approximation to the nor- 

 mal type of the species, are in a measure absent. 



c. Another of the modes of Man's Selection which 

 vary the evil results of Close-Interbreeding, is that 

 mode which, in a great measure, re-develops all or 

 nearly all of the lost or reduced characters of the 

 given species ; leaving the varieties to be distinguished 

 from one another, simply by some slight variations in 

 the ratio of the development of the species' characters. 



This process of Man's Selection is exemplified, in a 

 greater or less degree, in Horses, Sheep, and Cows. 



In consequence of this mode of Selection, so favor- 

 able to development, the interbreeding of individuals 

 of each variety of either of these species, is observed 

 to be replete with very little evil results ; the well-pro- 

 portioned animals often being capable of very close 

 and long continued in-and-in breeding, without the 

 slightest apparent prejudice; and, where evil is ob- 



