THE INADEQUACY OF "NATURAL SELECTION:' 799 

 THE INADEQUACY OF " NATURAL SELECTION." 



By HERBERT SPENCER. 



STUDENTS of psychology are familiar with the experiments of 

 Weber on the sense of touch. He found that different parts 

 of the surface differ widely in their ability to give information 

 concerning the things touched. Some parts, which yielded vivid 

 sensations, yielded little or no knowledge of the size or form of 

 the thing exciting it ; whereas other parts, from which there came 

 sensations much less acute, furnished clear impressions respecting 

 tangible characters, even of relatively small objects. These un- 

 likenesses of tactual discriminativeness he ingeniously expressed 

 by actual measurements. Taking a pair of compasses, he found 

 that if they were closed so nearly that the points were less than 

 one twelfth of an inch apart, the end of the forefinger could not 

 perceive that there were two points : the two points seemed one. 

 But when the compasses were opened so that the points were one 

 twelfth of an inch apart, then the end of the forefinger distin- 

 guished the two points. On the other hand, he found that the 

 compasses must be opened to the extent of two and a half inches 

 before the middle of the back could distinguish between two 

 points and one. That is to say, as thus measured, the end of the 

 forefinger has thirty times the tactual discriminativeness which 

 the middle of the back has. 



Between these extremes he found gradations. The inner sur- 

 faces of the second joints of the fingers can distinguish separate- 

 ness of positions only half as well as the tip of the forefinger. 

 The innermost joints are still less discriminating, but have a 

 power of discrimination equal to that of the tip of the nose. The 

 end of the great toe, the palm of the hand, and the cheek, have 

 alike one fifth of the perceptiveness which the tip of the fore- 

 finger has ; and the lower part of the forehead has but one half that 

 possessed by the cheek. The back of the hand and the crown of 

 the head are nearly alike in having but a fourteenth or a fifteenth 

 of the ability to perceive positions as distinct, which is possessed 

 by the finger-end. The thigh, near the knee, has rather less, and 

 the breast less still ; so that the compasses must be more than an 

 inch and a half apart before the breast distinguishes the two 

 points from one another. 



What is the meaning of these differences ? How, in the course 

 of evolution, have they been established ? If " natural selection " 

 or survival of the fittest is the assigned cause, then it is required 

 to show in what way each of these degrees of endowment has ad- 

 vantaged the possessor to such extent that not infrequently life 

 has been directly or indirectly preserved by it. We might rea- 



