Claypole.] ii^O [April 1, 



Facts of this kind fully and fairly considered (and geology is yearly 

 bringing them in great numbers before us) urge us strongly to the belief 

 that great results are constantly wrought in an organism by physical 

 changes in its environment, and failing evidence of any other agent com- 

 petent to effect them it is not irrational to ascribe to the same cause all the 

 variational changes. We may then view the organism as plastic material 

 in the hands of its environment, shaped by it entirely and absolutely, and 

 owing its form to its external conditions. Resuming the mathematical 

 illustration the organism is a variable quantity; the physical conditions 

 around it are the causes of its variation ; in response to these it varies and 

 after an uncertain period of variancy it becomes another — a Variate. 



In thus attributing all changes in an organism to changes in its environ- 

 ment we are under no obligation to admit that such changes are or must 

 be favorable. The physical world exists in total independence of the 

 organic. It was before (>rgauization and may be after it. So far from 

 serving or aiding it, phenomena lead us to the conclusion that animate 

 nature is, as it were, permitted b}'- and during certain states of inanimate 

 nature. Within certain limits of temperature, light, etc., organic beings 

 can exist. Beyond those limits their existence is impossible. The organ- 

 ism is, so to speak, an accident among its physical surroundings. If these 

 are compatible with life it lives, if not it dies. It exists on sufferance and 

 its existence is lengthened by its power of adaptation — by its variability. 

 If physical changes ensue the organism must adapt itself to them if it can, 

 and continue in being. If it cannot do so it becomes extinct. 



Summing up results thus far obtained we reach the conclusion that the 

 doctrine of evolution by variation in a definite beneficial course is not in 

 consonance with the facts of Nature. On the contrary we find that this 

 variation both of animals and plants appears to take place in every direc- 

 tion indifferently and quite without regard to the welfare of the variant. 

 We find further that no cause is known to which these changes can be 

 referred except the accompanying changes in the physical world. To 

 these accordingly we refer them, conscious at the same time that the exact 

 method of their action is as yet largely unknown. 



Further we find that the changes thus produced may be either beneficial, 

 neutral or injurious to the variant organism, following, as they do, certain 

 physical laws which are, if the expression may be allowed, totally indiffer- 

 ent to its welfare. In a word, adopting again the language of mathematics, 

 we may say that the Variate is a function of the original Variable depend- 

 ent on its constitution and the conditions of its environment — that the 

 changes between the Variable and its function, the Variate may be bene- 

 ficial in a high or low degree ; and may lead to its extension and increase ; 

 they may be neutral and leave the organism where they found it ; or they 

 may be prejudicial and lead to its diminution or extinction. In every 

 case, however, they are necessary consequences of the interaction of the 

 laws of organic nature within and of physical nature witheutthe organism, 

 inevitable, inexorable, fatal. 



