THE MADEIRA BEETLES POSTSCRIPT. 383 



maintain in preference with the older evolutionists, 

 that in consequence of change in the conditions of 

 their existence, organisms design new forms for them- 

 selves, and carry those designs out in additions to, and 

 modifications of, their own bodies. 



" The science of rudimentary organs," continues 

 Mr. Wallace, " which Haeckel terms ' dysteleology, or 

 the doctrine of purposelessness,' is here discussed, and 

 a number of interesting examples are given, the con- 

 clusion being that they prove the mechanical or monistic 

 conception of the origin of organisms to be correct, and 

 the idea of any ' all-wise creative plan an ancient 

 fable.' " I see no reason to suppose, or again not to 

 suppose, an all-wise creative plan. I decline to go into 

 this question, believing it to be not yet ripe, nor nearly 

 ripe, for consideration. I see purpose, however, in 

 rudimentary organs as much as in useful ones, but a 

 spent or extinct purpose a purpose which has been 

 fulfilled, and is now forgotten the rudimentary organ 

 being repeated from force of habit, indolence, and dis- 

 like of change, so long as it does not, to use the words 

 of Buffon, " stand in the way of the fair development " 

 of other parts which are found useful and necessary. 

 I demur, therefore, to the inference of " purposeless- 

 ness" which I gather that Professor Haeckel draws 

 from these organs. 



In the 'Academy' for April 19, 1879, Mr. Wallace 

 quotes Professor Haeckel as saying that our "highly 

 purposive and admirably-constituted sense-organs have 

 developed without premeditated aim ; that they have 

 originated by the same mechanical process of Natural 



