Herrick, Physiological Corollaries of Equilibrium Theory. 31 



abuse of a teleological principle for it is not to be assumed that 

 the body is reasoning from present causes to distant effects. If 

 an eye ceases to be used it is atrophied, not because it is no 

 longer useful and is therefore a cumberer of the ground, but be- 

 cause, the function having ceased, it is actually participating 

 less in the equilibrium than formerly and also less than other 

 organs. But a newly formly wart on the skin may be abso- 

 lutely useless, yet, like a corn, it may be the seat of irritative 

 processes which stimulate nutrition. It is then not the ideal 

 utility but the degree of participation in the vital equilibrium 

 which is the primary determinant. It is necessary to seek no 

 farther for the source of variation and it is not surprising, when 

 we consider the infinite possibilities for the increased vital ac- 

 tivity of one group of cells over another that natural mimicry 

 has found at hand all the necessary variations upon which it is 

 to work, though we must not hope to find in their number and 

 variety the complete explanations of the imitations produced. 



University of New Mexico, Feb. 20th, 1S98. 



