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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: has not been sufficiently attended to; but I believe, from observations
communicated to me by Mr. Hewitt, who has had great experience in
hybridising gallinaceous birds, that the early death of the embryo is a
very frequent cause of sterility in first crosses. I was at first very
unwilling to believe in this view; as hybrids, when once born, are
generally healthy and long-lived, as we see in the case of the common mule.
Hybrids, however, are differently circumstanced before and after birth:
when born and living in a country where their two parents can live, they
are generally placed under suitable conditions of life. But a hybrid
partakes of only half of the nature and constitution of its mother, and
therefore before birth, as long as it is nourished within its mother's womb
On the Origin of Species |
