102 Luck, or Cunning ? 
Darwin’s own words to put his position beyond doubt. 
He writes :— 
“Thirdly, when we enumerate the great changes pro- 
duced in the species of animals before their nativity, as, 
for example, when the offspring reproduces the effects 
produced upon the parent by accident or culture, or the 
changes produced by the mixture of species, as in mules; 
or the changes produced probably by exuberance of 
nourishment supplied to the foetus, as in monstrous births 
with additional limbs; many of these enormities are 
propagated and continued as a variety at least, if not as 
a new species of animal. I have seen a breed of cats with 
an additional claw on every foot; of poultry also with an 
additional claw and with wings to their feet; and of 
others without rumps. Mr. Buffon” (who, by the way, 
surely, was no more “ Mr. Buffon” than Lord Salisbury is 
‘“ Mr. Salisbury ’’) ‘‘ mentions a breed of dogs without tails 
which are common at Rome and Naples—which he sup- 
poses to have been produced by a custom long established 
of cutting their tails close off.’’* 
Here not one of the causes of variation adduced is con- 
nected with use and disuse, or effort, volition, and purpose ; 
the manner, moreover, in which they are brought forward 
is not that of one who shows signs of recalcitrancy about 
admitting other causes of modification as well as use and 
disuse ; indeed, a little lower down he almost appears to 
assign the subordinate place to functionally produced 
modifications, for he says—‘‘ Fifthly, from their first rudi- 
ments or primordium to the termination of their lives, all 
animals undergo perpetual transformations ; which ave in 
part produced by their own exertions in consequence of 
their desires and aversions, of their pleasures and their 
pains, or of irritations or of associations ; and many of these 
acquired forms or propensities are transmitted to their 
posterity.” 
3 * “ Zoonomia,”’ vol. i., p. 505. 
