288 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



suppose that they are the result of the phyletic metamorphosis of 

 fruitful females ? Weismann triumphantly adduced the case of 

 neuter insects in social species as an incontrovertible proof that 

 natural selection could do every thing without the possibility of any 

 transmission of somatogenic or so-called " acquired " characters. 

 As in many other instances, the argument is produced by looking at 

 the phenomenon upside down. I believe that some day it will be 

 generally admitted that the whole natural selection doctrine is, in 

 the etymological sense, preposterous. There was a time when it was 

 universally held that the sun moved round the earth. So it does, 

 apparently. It has a motion across the heavens from east to west in 

 relation to a human observer. The belief was true up to a certain 

 point. But Galileo discovered that the earth moved round its own 

 axis. In relation to the whole solar system the sun is fixed — the 

 earth moves. So it is with the evolution of organisms. Assuming 

 the occurrence of the modifications, it may be said from an anthro- 

 pomorphic point of view that natural selection preserves them. But 

 it is a much deeper truth that evolution is the result of 

 successive modifications or changes in succeeding generations, and 

 the mere survival of these modifications is not the cause of them. 

 Whatever may be the case in other instances, it is clear that the 

 peculiarities of neuter insects as compared with the perfect individuals 

 of their species, are the direct result of the conditions of life. Under 

 similar conditions the eggs all develop into similar individuals ; the 

 differences of the individuals correspond to the differences of conditions. 

 The differentiation has doubtless been progressive, because the 

 differentiation of conditions has been progressive. If we start from a 

 solitary perfect female which had developed the habit of bestowing 

 maternal care on her young, the gradual development of the system 

 naturally follows. There is no reason to believe that the arrest of the 

 metamorphosis by insufficient food, etc., has been evolved specially in 

 the social insect. It occurs in the Axolotl, and also in the common 

 tadpole ; in the former naturally, in the latter artificially. The social 

 insect is not a community, it is a family. The queen is merely a 

 breeding mother. As soon as she began to feed her larvae piecemeal, 

 instead of laying an egg in a store of food, it was inevitable that 

 some of them should be inadequately nourished. These by instinct 

 and imitation fed their brothers and sisters, and when food was 

 abundant perfect insects were produced. But the mother having less 

 work to do and more food, became increasingly fertile, so that in 

 subsequent generations more workers were produced, and she had still 

 less work to do. So long as the perfect female started in spring alone 

 without help she continued to perform maternal duties herself. 

 Where she survived the winter with a number of workers, the need 

 for work on her part ceased. As soon as the workers existed the 

 relations of these and the female to the outer world were different. 

 The consequent modifications of the perfect female were transmitted 



