102 BIOLOGY AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES 



To one point with reference to the bio 

 logical conception of a living organism no re 

 ference has yet been made. Living organisms 

 always, or nearly always, appear to be marvel 

 lously 'adapted' to their physical environ 

 ment. Yet this adaptation is not of the 

 essence of the biological conception of an 

 organism. We know, also, that organisms 

 may develop which, in one way or another, 

 are so misshapen or defective that they 

 cannot survive, though they have all the 

 essential characteristics of organisms. They 

 maintain their existences as organisms for a 

 short time, blindly struggling, as it were, to 

 preserve the defects which make them in 

 capable of surviving. 



Organic life is ' blind ' : each organism 

 blindly struggles to maintain its own exist 

 ence or that of its species. We can only 

 explain the actual marvellous and intricate 

 ' teleological ' adaptation of organism and 

 physical environment by the fact that, as 

 pointed out by Darwin and Wallace, those 

 organisms which are not so adapted must 

 disappear. Even if we could see far enough 

 to be able to regard as organic the whole of 



