■Chap. XXVII. OF PANGENESIS. 373 



changed conditions have the power of evoking long-lost characters, 

 as in the case of some feral animals. The act of crossing in 

 itself possesses this power in a high degree. What can be 

 more wonderful than that characters, which have disappeared 

 during scores, or hundreds, or even thousands of generations, 

 should suddenly reappear perfectly developed, as in the case 

 of pigeons and fowls when purely bred, and especially when 

 crossed ; or as with the zebrine stripes or dun-coloured horses, 

 und other such cases? Many monstrosities come under this 

 same head, as when rudimentary organs are redeveloped, or 

 when an organ which we must believe was possessed by an 

 early progenitor, but of which not even a rudiment is left, 

 suddenly reappears, as with the fifth stamen in some Scro- 

 phulariacese. We have already seen that reversion acts in bud- 

 reproduction ; and we know that it occasionally acts during the 

 growth of the same individual animal, especially, but not exclu- 

 sively, when of crossed parentage, — as in the rare cases described 

 of individual fowls, pigeons, cattle, and rabbits, which have 

 reverted as they advanced in years to the colours of one of their 

 parents or ancestors. 



We are led to believe, as formerly explained, that every 

 character which occasionally reappears is present in a latent form 

 in each generation, in nearly the same manner as in male and 

 female animals secondary characters of the opposite sex lie 

 latent, ready to be evolved when the reproductive organs are 

 injured. This comparison of the secondary sexual characters 

 which are latent in both sexes, with other latent characters, 

 is the more appropriate from the case recorded of the Hen, 

 which assumed some of the masculine characters, not of her 

 own race, but of an early progenitor; she thus exhibited at 

 the same time the redevelopment of latent characters of both 

 kinds and connected both classes. In every living creature 

 we may feel assured that a host of lost characters lie ready to 

 be evolved under proper conditions. How can we make in- 

 telligible, and connect with other facts, this wonderful and 

 common capacity of reversion,— this power of calling back to 

 life long-lost characters ? 



