XXXI 



This is a point of view of the greatest possible significance, embracing even 

 the development of man as a spiritual being. Contemporary biological science 

 is practically indifferent to this : but new ideas on the subject must ultimately 

 find acceptance, which will undoubtedly have a fundamental influence upon 

 many biological theories and problems, at present in the order of the day. 

 Naturally this will need time, but it is bound to come: "evolution" will cease 

 to be a pedantic phrase, a commonplace of conventional would-be learning, 

 and become the subject of serious study. This was the intention and the 

 hope of the great minds that discovered it, however much the thick fog of 

 narrowmindedness which descended upon it later may have prevented it. 



We must still discuss another independent change of the kind referred to 

 of particular organs, that, namely, of the evolutionary change in the genitals. 

 In the study of the Lycaenidae very free use has been made of this for the 

 distinguishing of species, by Mrs. F. A. Chapman, J. W. Tutt, and George 

 T. BETnaNE-BAKER, the last in his ,, A Revision of the Amblypodia Group of 

 Butterflies oi the family Lycaenidae" (Trans, of Zool. Soc. London XVII igoj), 

 so that SwiNHOE too considers that the systematic arrangement of the species 

 must be formed upon this basis. A short time ago the Dutch entomologist 

 mentioned on p. lxiv of my third introduction, has treated the Rhopalocera 

 fauna of the island of Si Malur according to this system (Notes of the Lcydoi 

 Alitsewn Vol. XXXVI), and he has also verbally communicated to me some 

 other results arrived at in the same way ; it is therefore high time to pronounce 

 a warning against this method. Undoubtedly in many species there are 

 characteristic differences in the structure of the genitals, which may therefore 

 legitimately be used to distinguish these species. Nevertheless it is superficial 

 to regard these as a infaillible specific characteristic. It is not only incorrect, 

 but entirely unscientific. 



This subject is still haunted by the old conception, referred to above, 

 which regarded the different species as so many independently created entities. 

 But since the discovery of evolution has dissipated the idea of reparate creations, 

 and since it is known, that species arise from others through differentiation, 



" Palaeontology has now proved that every organism is made up of an almost infinite number 

 " of characters, each of which is in a continuous state of movement .... The most significant 

 " result derived from the intensive study of the evolution of the titanothere family of mammals 

 " is the law of multiple character evolution, namely, that evolution simultaneously progresses in 

 " every one of the innumerable single characters of which an organism in composed." 



It is certainly remarkable that my studies on living insects entirely conform what the writer 

 has discovered through his palaeontologial studies and how we have both been brought to a 

 recognition of the importance of the multiple character of evolution. For although this is not 

 entirely unknown, yet it is indeniably neglected by present day science and the importance of it 

 is by no means sufficiently appreciated. 



