No. 544] ORIGIN OF UNIT CHARACTERS 



TABLE I 



Comparative Table of Saltations 



Short-leggedness, c 



Polydactylism 

 Epidermal thicken 



The very uniformity of the result makes us suspicious 

 as to the significance of saltations, major or minor, in 

 evolution. In eleven different kinds of mammals, namely, 

 man, horses, cattle, sheep, deer, pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, 

 guinea pigs, mice, we observe that saltations exactly or 

 closely similar repeatedly occur. These saltations are of 

 the same kind, in fact, they partly include those which 

 were regarded by Darwin as possibly part of the evolu- 

 tion process through selection, namely, as stable in in- 

 heritance and as under certain circumstances favoring 

 the animals which possessed them. 



We evidently have to do with abnormal disturbances 

 of the germinal factors or determiners. Some of these 

 saltations are very stable in heredity and certain of them 

 become widespread; some are prepotent and dominant, 

 others are recessive (e. g., angora, or "long coat" in 

 rabbits, Castle) ; some (e. g., bent tail in certain mice, 



