states that he sent a skeleton to the President of the Royal Society at
the same time that he forwarded his paper, I am afraid that the variety
has entirely disappeared; for a short time after these sheep had become
prevalent in that district, the Merino sheep were introduced; and as
their wool was much more valuable, and as they were a quiet race of
sheep, and showed no tendency to trespass or jump over fences, the
Otter breed of sheep, the wool of which was inferior to that of the
Merino, was gradually allowed to die out.

You see that these facts illustrate perfectly well what may be done if
you take care to breed from stocks that are similar to each other.
After having got a variation, if, by crossing a variation with the
original stock, you multiply that variation, and then take care to keep
that variation distinct from the original stock, and make them breed
together,--then you may almost certainly produce a race whose tendency
to continue the variation is exceedingly strong.

This is what is called "selection"; and it is by exactly the same
process as that by which Seth Wright bred his Ancon sheep, that our
breeds of cattle, dogs, and fowls, are obtained. There are some
possibilities of exception, but still, speaking broadly, I may say that
this is the way in which all our varied races of domestic animals have
arisen; and you must understand that it is not one peculiarity or one
characteristic alone in which animals may vary. There is not a single
peculiarity or characteristic of any kind, bodily or mental, in which
offspring may not vary to a certain extent from the parent and other
animals.

Among ourselves this is well known. The simplest physical peculiarity
is mostly reproduced. I know a case of a man whose wife has the lobe of