i5i
condition it is placed. It is only in the case of mere fancy
breeds that the animal is not benefited by the curious
transmutation brought about by selection.
Mr. Romanes supplies us with some beautifully-executed
plates representing the different kinds of dogs and other
animals which have been the outcome of Artificial Selec
tion. He presents these as an overwhelming proof of the
efficacy of the selective principle in the modification of
organic types (p. 297), and adds : “ It is surely unquestion
able that in these typical proofs of the efficacy of Artificial
Selection we have the strongest conceivable testimony to
the power of Natural Selection in the same direction ”
(/. 313). That would be perfectly true if the operation
was carried on in the same way in both cases ; but the
triumph of Artificial Selection does not imply the necessary
triumph of Natural Selection if the process is different.
We want to have the identity of the two processes
demonstrated to us. We know that domestic dogs differ
from one another, but they have very little more to do with
the proof which Mr. Romanes is attempting to establish,
than the dogs of Lear and Edgar with any rational con
versation, when the mad king, in the midst of arraigning
his daughters, says :—
“ Lear : The little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see they bark at me."
And the sham madman takes up the running :—
“Edgar: Tom will throw his head at them :—Avaunt, you curs !
Be thy mouth or black or white,
Tooth that poisons, if it bite ;
Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim,
Hound, or spaniel, brach, or lym ;
Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail ;
Tom will make them weep and wail :
For, with throwing thus my head,
Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled.”
—Act iii., sc. 6.