ORIGIN OF SPECIES 151 



to the occurrence of a new individual, which, through 

 other properties inherent in living matter, can re- 

 produce a grouj) of individuals like itself. Another 

 and entirely unconnected series of events in the 

 outer world has produced another situation as when 

 the land w^as lifted above the water. If the new type 

 happens to come into relation with the new world 

 it may perpetuate itself there. This is adaptation — 

 the fortuitous coming together of the results of two 

 processes that have developed independently of each 

 other. The fitness of the animal or plant to an en- 

 vironment that it finds existing, gives the false im- 

 pression that its relation to the environment, its 

 adaptation, has come about through a response to 

 the environment. The central idea of natural selec- 

 tion, as generally understood at the present time, is 

 that the relation is purely fortuitous. The organism 

 has been produced by one series of events, the en- 

 vironment by another; the relation of the two is 

 secondary. 



The Dominance of the Wild Type Genes 



The genes that arise by mutation have been found 

 to be largely recessive to the genes already present 

 in the original type which are said, therefore, to be 

 dominant to the new genes. If the original genes also 

 arose by mutation there is no obvious reason why 

 new genes are not as often dominant as recessive to 

 the original ones. It may be frankly admitted that 



