No. 602] THE SELECTION PROBLEM 



83 



The answers to this question were negative in every 

 case except one. In that case the correspondent was 

 unable to cite any specific instances illustrating his con- 

 tention, but thought on general principles that it must be 

 so. In other words, his belief in the selection theory, like 

 that of Weismann, was based on wholly other grounds 

 than demonstrative evidence. The general tenor of the 

 answers to this question is well indicated by a statement 

 of Mr. J. F. Entwisle,^^ who is probably the greatest 

 authority on bantam breeds of poultry now living. He 

 stated that it was thought by some that 



proper little bantams could be bred from large fowls without any 

 admixture of bantam blood. ... If such can be done, then our thirty- 

 odd years' experience of bantam "manufacturing" counts for very 

 little. We38 have lived to see the manufacture of some forty varieties, 



If time permitted, the citation of the detailed history 

 of the making of several breeds of bantams would show 

 very clearly that Darwinian selection plays an extremely 

 minor and unimportant part in the process as it is actu- 

 ally performed. Large breeds of poultry show the same 

 thing. Two of our most important breeds, the Wyan- 

 dottes and the Orpingtons, are of comparatively recent 

 origin. The facts as to their origin are well known and 

 the essential biological factors concerned in both cases 

 are the same, namely, hybridization as a start, followed 

 by close inbreeding of desired segregating types. In 

 other cases new varieties of poultry have appeared as 

 sudden mutations by loss of factors. Such is the origin 

 of the White Plymouth Eock and the White Cornish, for 

 example. 



III. Selection Experiments 

 We now como to the tliird class of ovidoiu^o on the selec- 

 tion problem, namoly. that afforded l.y controlled ad hoc 



