On the Genesis of SpeciesMivart, St. George Jackson
Religion
On the Genesis of Species
Mivart, St. George Jackson
Evolution (Biology)
The Rev. R. Everett found that setters at Delhi, though most carefully
paired, yet had young with "nostrils more contracted, noses more pointed,
size inferior, and limbs more slender." Again, cats at Mombas, on the coast
of Africa, have short stiff hairs instead of fur, and a cat at Algoa Bay,
when left only eight weeks at Mombas, "underwent a complete metamorphosis,
having parted with its sandy-coloured fur."[78] The conditions of life seem
to produce a considerable effect on horses, and instances are given by Mr.
Darwin of pony breeds[79] having independently arisen in different parts of
the world, possessing a certain similarity in their physical {99}
conditions. Also changes due to climate may be brought about at once in a
second generation, though no appreciable modification is shown by the
first. Thus "Sir Charles Lyell mentions that some Englishmen, engaged in
conducting the operations of the Real del Monte Company in Mexico, carried
out with them some greyhounds of the best breed to hunt the hares which
abound in that country. It was found that the greyhounds could not support
the fatigues of a long chase in this attenuated atmosphere, and before they
could come up with their prey they lay down gasping for breath; but these
same animals have produced whelps, which have grown up, and are not in the
least degree incommoded by the want of density in the air, but run down the
hares with as much ease as do the fleetest of their race in this
country."[80]
We have here no action of "Natural Selection;" it was not that certain
puppies happened accidentally to be capable of enduring more rarefied air,
and so survived, but the offspring were directly modified by the action of
surrounding conditions. Neither was the change elaborated by minute
modifications in many successive generations, but appeared at once in the
second.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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