126 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



Undesigned Experiments. 



We are thrown back, then, on such experiments as may be 

 provided for us by the uncalculated operations of man through 

 many ages. This class I call undesigned experiments and have 

 had more to say about numerous examples of these in another 

 place. 1 Using the term experiment broadly we see many 

 occurrences which consist in an accidental observation of a fact, 

 and Jevons mentions five of these which have led to organised 

 results in science — the double refraction in Iceland spar by Erasmus 

 Bartholinus, the twitching of a frog's leg under stimuli by Galvani, 

 the light reflected from distant windows with a double-refracting 

 substance by Malus, the form of a vertebra by Oken, and the 

 peculiar appearance of a solution of quinine by Sir John Herschel. 

 But he notes something further than this, that is, the way in which 

 astronomers make the earth's orbit the basis of a well-arranged 

 natural experiment. He says further that " Nature has made no 

 experiment at all for us within historical times " among animals 

 living in a state of nature, allowing at the same time that man has 

 made an approach to experiment in his domestication of many 

 animals. Huxley himself kept an open mind until the last as to the 

 validity of Natural Selection in the Origin of Species, because of 

 the fact that races which are sterile together have not yet been 

 produced by human cultivation, for example, the sterility of mules, 

 the human product of the jackass and the mare. I allude to this 

 to show that such a result, if effected, would have constituted a 

 valuable experiment in biology in favour of Natural Selection. 



Harness on Horses, 



Man has, however, been carrying on unconsciously throughout 

 a great stretch of time an experiment upon the hair on the coat of a 

 horse by the use of harness. This is an old story and its rudiments 

 are mentioned by Professor Scott Elliott. 2 He states that the 

 men of Cromagnon are believed by a high authority as to their 

 rock-paintings to have depicted some marks which represent rude 

 harness of some kind, though he himself expresses doubt on the 

 matter. He also quotes the same authority for the figures made 

 by the Madelenians as having found signs which can be interpreted 

 as halters or even bridles. Be this as it may, we need not carry 

 our search for the use of harness to this hoary antiquity, but 

 know well from history that for many thousands of years man has 



1 Contemporary Review, June 1917. 



2 Prehistoric Man and His Story. G. F. Scott EUiott, 1916, pp. 169, 206. 



