CHAPTER IX - PROOFS FROM VARIATION OF ORGANIC FORMS, ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL

Summary

As already stated, page 40, the use of the method of experiment in the field of biology is, unfortunately, very limited. Nevertheless, it is already beginning to be used more and more in the department of physiology, and may be used also, to a limited extent, in the department of morphology. It is true that direct scientific experiments, for the express purpose of producing permanent modifications of form, and thus testing the theory of evolution, are of comparatively little value as yet, because the all-important element of time is wanting. The steps of evolution are so slow, and the time necessary to produce any sensible effect is usually so great, that, in comparison, man's individual lifetime is almost a vanishing quantity. But, from time immemorial, experiments have been unconsciously made by man on domestic animals and food-plants, which bear directly on this subject. All domestic animals and food-plants, and many ornamental flowering plants, have been subjected for ages to a process of artificial selection acting upon natural variation of offspring. As wild species are modified, we believe, indefinitely by divergent variation and natural selection, so domestic species are modifiable certainly largely, perhaps indefinitely, by divergent variation and artificial selection by man. We all know the extraordinary modifications which have thus been gradually brought about in domestic animals, such as dogs, horses, sheep, pigeons, etc.: in food-plants, as cereal grains, garden-vegetables, etc., and in ornamental plants, as roses, dahlias, pinks, etc.