40 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



and substitutes, in lieu thereof, its evolutionary interpretation. 

 ''When organs have the same ancestry," he says, "that is, when 

 they come from some common part of an ancestral type, they 

 are said to be homologous." ("Biology," p. 165.) In short, F. 

 A. Bather is using a consecrated formula culled from the 

 modern biological creed when he says: "The old form of 

 diagnosis was yer genus et differ entiam. The new form is 

 per proavum et modificationemJ' {Science, Sept. 17, 1920, 

 p. 259.) 



A moment's reflection, however, will make it clear that, in 

 thus confounding the definition proper with its theoretical in- 

 terpretation, the modern biologist is guilty of a logical atrocity. 

 Homology, after all, is a simple anatomical fact, which can 

 be quite adequately defined in terms of observation; nor is the 

 definition improved in the least by having its factual elements 

 diluted with explanatory theory. On the contrary, the defini- 

 tioi is decidedly weakened by such redundancy. And as for 

 those who insist on defining homology in terms of atavistic 

 assumption instead of structural affinity, their procedure is 

 tantamount to defining the clear by means of the obscure, an 

 actual effect by means of a possible cause. Moreover, this 

 attempt to load the dice in favor of Transformism by tamper- 

 ing with the definition of homology ends by defeating its own 

 purpose. For, if homology is to serve as a legitimate argu- 

 ment for evolution, then obviously evolution must not be 

 included in its definition; otherwise, the conclusion is antici- 

 pated in the premise, the question is begged, and the argument 

 itself rendered a vicious circle. 



Having formed a sufficiently clear conception of homology 

 as a static fact, we are now in a position to consider the prob- 

 lem of its causality with reference to the solution proposed by 

 evolutionists. Transmutation, they tell us, results from the 

 interaction of a twofold process, namely, the conservative and 

 similifying process called inheritance, and progressive and 

 diversifying process known as variation. Inheritance by trans- 

 mitting the ancestral likeness tends to bring about uniform- 



