ATMOSPHERIC FACTOR IN EVOLLTIOX. 30I 



■organism in the slightest. It is constantly getting new informa- 

 tion and as constantly setting its machinery in motion so to 

 modify the organism as to make the best of the new conditions. 

 Again, tjhis regulating centre may be compared to a perfect nurse 

 in charge of the body. I hold, then, that in every organism 

 there is this perfect nurse in charge, knowing everything affecting 

 the body, and making the best of the means at her disposal, for 

 the good of the organism as a whole. 



Evolution, then, ivhicJi I take to he the constant change due 

 to the constant adaptation of the organism to the constantly chang- 

 ing conditions is thus never at rest in an}^ organism. In the so- 

 called fittest, and in the so-called unfit, this evolution is constantly 

 going- on under the control of the all-knowing and all-wise nurse 

 in charge, the nurture regulating centre. 



Xow for a few examples of the working of this law : — , 

 If an eye or a muscle is not being used by an organism tlie 

 nurture regulating centre knows, and gradually reduces the sup- 

 ply of nourishment to the part, and has thus more to spare for 

 ,the rest of the organism. 



If by accident or by amputation an animal loses a limb, the 



'Centre knows of the altered condition at once, and begins at once 



to regulate the nurture supply to the new conditions : less is sent 



to the shortened limb, and the blood-vessels are gradually 



occluded. 



Take, again, gangrene of the foot, or the homely boil. We 

 all know what happens. There is some poison, in each case, 

 detrimental to the organism as a whole. The centre knows this, 

 and gradually cuts off all supplies to the noxious parts. Ulti- 

 mately the foot is thrown off for the good of the whole. Take 

 another example : sometimes it is necessary to tie a main artery, 

 say the femoral. Here the centre gets news at once that the 

 food supply to one leg has been almost completely cut oft". The 

 centre at once sets the machinery in motion, and starts to open 

 up new channels, and to widen existing side-channels. These 

 are gradually widened, and in a few days the leg is getting its 

 usual amount of food (and heat, too) by newly established routes. 

 Here we have a distinct variation evolved in the course of a few 

 -days. 



Let us now take examples of the slower working of this law, 

 and compare it with Darwinism. Let us take the black skin of the 

 Negro. Let us start with white skins in a temperate climate, 

 and let us assume that the white skins are suddenly transplanted 

 to a much warmer climate. 



According to Darwin, of the first generation born under the 

 new conditions, a few would be slightly darker than the normal. 

 Those darker ones suited the conditions best, and survived 

 through a bad drought. Of their offspring, again, some were 

 slightly darker than the others, and again proved fittest. In this 

 way the Negro skin was, according to Darwin, evolved from the 

 white. Now for my explanation : Here, too, let us start with 

 the white skin put under tTie hot sun. As soon as they are trans- 

 planted to a hotter clime, the centre knows, and at once begins 

 to make the best of the means at disposal, by regulating the 



