If any one were to succeed in adding a heavy pair of horns to a breed
of hornless sheep, there would run parallel with the course of this
variation, which was directly aimed at, a long series of secondary
changes which would affect at least the whole of the anterior half of
the body; the skull would become thicker and stronger to support the
weight of the heavy horns; the neck-tendon (_ligamentum nuchæ_) would
have to become thicker to hold up the heavy head, and so also with the
muscles of the neck; the spinous processes of the cervical and dorsal
vertebrae would become longer and stronger, and the forelegs, too,
would need to adapt themselves to the heavier burden. Every organism
thus resembles, as it were, a mosaic, out of which no individual group
of pieces can be taken and replaced by another without in some measure
disturbing the correlation and harmony of the whole: in order to
restore this, the pieces all round about the changed part must be moved
or replaced by others.
According to Darwin, it is to this correlation of parts that we must
refer the variation of other parts besides the one intentionally
altered in the course of breeding. It must be admitted that the mutual
dependence of the parts plays a very important rôle in the economy
and development of the animal body, as we shall see later, and these
connexions still remain very mysterious to us. Especially is this
the case with the connexion between the reproductive organs and the
so-called secondary sexual characters. Removal of the reproductive
organs or gonads induces, in Man, for instance, if it be effected in
youth, the persistence of the childish voice and the non-development
of the beard; in the stag the antlers do not appear, and in the cock
the comb does not develop perfectly, &c., but we are not yet able to
understand clearly why this should be so.
LECTURE III
THE DARWINIAN THEORY (_continued_)
Natural selection--Variation--Struggle for existence--Geometric ratio
of rate of increase--Normal number and ratio of elimination in a
species--Accidental causes of extinction--Dependence of the strength
of a species on enemies--Struggle for existence between individuals
of the same species--Natural selection affects all organs and
stages--Summary.
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