Atavism In The Hound Of Baskerville

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Every now and then scientist will happen upon an animal with a strange trait—like a whale with legs. Since most whales don’t have legs this baffled scientist.
The whale, a mammal, helps to explain atavism. Atavism is a trait from a distant evolutionary ancestor that has reappeared in a modern-day organisms. Basically the whales evolved and shed their legs.
The theory of evolution states that DNA may change. The changes in an organism’s DNA can be for the better, worse, or neutral. After a while, these mutations, eventually lead to a new species. Natural selection, a part of evolution, states that beneficial changes will help these creatures to thrive and reproduce, while those with bad mutations will die out. Basically, the whales that took …show more content…

Although similar, vestigial structures are body parts that survive as degenerate, imperfect versions of what they should be. Basically a body part that serves a purpose other than the intended use.

In Doyle’s novella, The Hound of Baskerville, he uses different ideas of throwbacks and of regression. The first time that we notice an example of atavism in this story is when Holmes and Watson figure out who Dr. Mortimer is, the author of “Some Freaks of Atavism”.
The main throwback in this story is the hound itself, which represents the evils of Hugo Baskerville and comes back to hunt the heirs of the Baskerville estate. The fact that the curse of the hound will seek out and destroy all of the heirs of Hugo Baskerville shows the possibility of regression to evil. The fact that Doyle sets the moor up to represent evil further confirms that once something is considered evil that it shall remain evil.
Another throwback is when Holmes realizes that Stapleton is in fact a descendant of Sir Hugo by studying an old family portrait. In this sense Holmes not only uses the modern scientific doctrine of atavism but also the religious doctrine of reincarnation. All this comes full circle when Doyle reveals that Stapleton is in fact the controller of the Hound of

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