LAMARCK 93 



Many other groups of animals, notably the Crustacea and in- 

 sects, furnish familiar examples of the loss of the adult structure, 

 and of the broader life which it permitted, in order that the per- 

 petuation of the species may be the more assured. They illus- 

 trate, in the clearest way, the supreme importance of the species, 

 and the "indifference" of nature to the welfare of the individual 

 when this welfare is incompatible with the good of the species as 

 a whole. Whether we agree with Weismann that old age and 

 natural death owe their existence to their usefulness or not, they 

 are clearly useful to the species, but it is not necessary to dwell 

 upon the subject, for the examples which we have considered are 

 enough to illustrate the familiar fact that the end which the 

 adjustments of living things bring about is the good of the species, 

 rather than the success of individuals. 



All the adaptations of living nature are like the bee's sting 

 and the poison of serpents, inasmuch as their use is exhibited in 

 the lives of other individuals than those which exhibit the struct- 

 ural adjustment. It also seems clear that, even if the direct 

 effects of nurture are both beneficial and inherited, they can have 

 no controlling or notable influence in the production of the sort 

 of adjustments which actually exist, however competent they may 

 be to produce others. Can any zoologist say, with Lysicles: 

 " Look throughout the universe, and you shall find birds and 

 fishes, beasts and insects, all kinds of animals, with which creation 

 swarms, constantly engaged by instinct in the pursuit of sensible 

 pleasure ; and shall man alone be the grave fool, who thwarts and 

 crosses and subdues his appetites, while his fellow-creatures do all 

 most joyfully and freely indulge them?" 



Must he not rather, with Euphranor, " infer the excellency of 

 animal bodies from observing the frame and fitness of their sev- 

 eral parts, by which they mutually conspire to the well-being of 

 each other as well as of the whole " ? 



Certain Neo-Lamarckians assert, however, that while natural 

 selection is the chief factor in the origin of species, it cannot act 

 unless the conditions of life furnish the necessary "variations." 

 I shall examine this proposition in another place, and shall now 

 do no more than to point out that, unless the differences between 

 individuals which are brought about by nurture are useful, prior to 



