GERMINAL SELECTION. 15 



the sole ground of inference that the species upon 

 the whole is adequately adapted to its conditions of 

 life, is the simple fact that the species is, to all appear- 

 ances, preserved undiminished, and the inference is not 

 at all permissible that just this protective coloring has 

 selective value for the species, that is, that if it were 

 lacking, the species would necessarily have perished. 



It is not inconceivable that in many species to-day 

 these colorings are actually unnecessary for the pres- 

 ervation of the species, that they formerly were, but 

 that now the enemies which preyed on the resting but- 

 terflies have grown scarce or have died out entirely, 

 and that the protective coloring will continue to exist 

 by the law of inertia 1 only for a short while till pan- 

 mixia or new adaptations shall modify it. 



Discouraging, therefore, as it may be, that the con- 

 trol of nature in her minutest details is here gainsaid 

 us, yet it were equivalent to sacrificing the gold to 

 the dross, if simply from our inability to follow out 

 the details of the individual case we should renounce 

 altogether the principle of selection, or should proclaim 

 it as only subsidiary, on the ground that we believe 

 the protective coloring of the butterfly is not a pro- 

 tective coloring, but a combination of colors inevitably 

 resulting from internal causes. The protective color- 

 ing remains a protective coloring whether at the time 

 in question it is or is not necessary for the species ; and 

 it arose as protective coloring arose not because it 

 was a constitutional necessity of the animal's organism 

 that here a red and there a white, black, or yellow 

 spot should be produced, but because it was advan- 



1 That is, by the law of exceedingly slow retrogression of 

 superfluous characters, which may be designated the law of 

 organic inertia. 



