nds on the transmission
from the forefather to his descendants of dormant gemmules, which
occasionally become developed under certain known or unknown conditions.
Each animal and plant may be compared to a bed of mould full of seeds, most
of which soon germinate, some lie for a period dormant, whilst others
perish. When we hear it said that a man carries in his constitution the
seeds of an inherited disease, there is much literal truth in the
expression. Finally, the power of propagation possessed by each separate
cell, using the term in its largest sense, determines the reproduction, the
variability, the development and renovation of each living organism. No
other attempt, as far as I am aware, has been made, imperfect as this
confessedly is, to connect under one point of view these several grand
classes of facts. We cannot fathom the marvellous complexity of an organic
being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much
increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little
universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably
minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.

* * * * *

{405}

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

DOMESTICATION--NATURE AND CAUSES OF VARIABILITY--SELECTION--DIVERGENCE
AND DISTINCTNESS OF CHARACTER--EXTINCTION OF RACES--CIRCUMSTANCES
FAVOURABLE TO SELECTION BY MAN--ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN RACES--THE
QUESTION WHETHER EACH PARTICULAR VARIATION HAS BEEN SPECIALLY
PREORDAINED.

As summaries have been added to nearly all the chapters, and as, in the
chapter on pangenesis, various subjects, such as the forms of reproduction,
inheritance, reversion, the causes and laws of variability, &c., have been
recently discussed, I will here only make a few general remarks on the more
important conclusions which may be deduced from the multifarious details
given throughout this work.

Savages in all parts of the world easily succeed in taming wild animals;
and those inhabiting any country or island, when first invaded by man,
would probably have been still more easily tamed. Complete subjugation
generally depends on an animal being social in its habits, and on receiving
man as the chief of the herd or family. Domestication implies almost
complete fertility under new and changed conditions of life, and this is
far from being invariably the case. An animal would not have been worth the
labour of do