134 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



2. — " Environment Selects the Best Individuals." 



I express this part of the text in an ambiguous 

 form because the ambiguity seems really to be 

 present in Mr. Mudge's treatment of the subject. 

 Tlie literal truth, one is taught to suppose, is that 

 any set of conditions tends to select the individuals 

 whose qualities give them an advantage under those 

 conditions. Science, I take it, commits itself to no 

 further meaning of "fittest" or "best." In fact, 

 we often condemn an environment because by strict 

 natural law it gives the advantage to qualities which 

 Ave condemn ; witness " the corruptions of a Royal 

 Court " * where the time-server and flatterer succeed 

 and survive. Given any environment, Nature may 

 be trusted to select. Can we trust her to select 

 such qualities as we shall approve of ? 



Further, no conceivable environment can take 

 account of the whole of an individual's qualities 

 when it gives its judgment for life or death. The 

 Summer Savory in Mr. Mudge's instance can turn 

 purple on the mountain-side, whilst the Flax from 

 an " inherent defect " remains what it was in the 

 valley, and dies. But in the valley, I imagine, the 

 first woiTld have found not the smallest advantage 

 in its possession of this power, and the second not 

 the smallest disadvantage in the lack of it. Their 

 selection by the valley environment must take place 

 without any regard to its presence or absence. 

 Whether or not this is so with plants, it is certainly 



* "A Plea," page 121. 



