43 
cattle, the strongest Lull drives from him all the younger and 
■weaker individuals of his own sex, and remains solo master of 
the herd ; so that all the young which are produced must have 
had their origin from one which possessed the maximum of 
power and physical strength, and which, consequently, in the 
struggle for existence Avas the best able to maintain his ground 
and defend himself from every enemy. 
“ In like manner, among animals which procure their food by 
reason of their agility, strength, or delicacy of sense, the one 
best organised must always obtain the gi’oatcst quantity, and 
must, therefore, become physically the strongest, and be thus 
enabled, by routing its opponents, to transmit its superior qualities 
to a greater number of oflspring. The same law, therefore, which 
was intended by I’rovidence to keep up the typical qualities of 
a species, can bo easily converted by man into a means of raising 
diilcrent varieties ; but it is also clear that if man did not keep 
up these breeds by regulating the sexual intercourse, they would 
all naturally soon revert to the original type. Further, it is 
only on this principle that wo can satisfactorily account for the 
degenerating elfects said to bo produced by breeding ‘ in and in.’ 
There would almost seem, in some species, to be a tendency in 
every separate family, to some particular kind of deviation, Avhich 
is only counteracted by the various crossings which, in a state 
of nature, must take place, and by the above-mentioned law, 
which causes each race to be chiclly propagated by the most 
typical and perfect individuals. 
“ IV. True ATaricties. The last of these divisions, to Avhich 
I more peculiarl}'^ re.strict the term variety, consists of what arc, 
in fact, a kind of deformities or monstrous birth, the peculiarities 
of which Avould rarely if ever be perpetuated in a state of 
nature, but which by man’s agency often become the origin of 
a new race. 
“ Such, for example, is the breed of sheep now common in 
North America, known by the name of Ancons or otter sheep. 
An ewe produced a male lamb of peculiar form, Avith a long body 
and short and crooked limbs. The oflspring of this animal Avith 
ordinary females Avas found sometimes to resemble the one parent 
and sometimes the other, but did not usually blend the characters 
of each; and, in the case of tAvins, the tA\’o lambs Avere often 
