58 PROBLEMS OF EVOLUTION 



presented to the Neo-Darwinians, i.e. to those Darwinians who 

 have thrown overboard Lamarckism, is certainly not a very 

 easy one. The next chapter is to be constructive and there will 

 be the place to show how Natural Selection unassisted, can 

 deal with it. (See p. 122.) 



At present I will only show that at one point his own position 

 is utterly untenable. The antlers themselves, Lamarckians hold, 

 originated from the fights of rival bucks. They were constantly 

 butting each other and the bone of the skull thickened at the 

 place which was most buffeted. Hence the antlers of, for 

 instance, the wapiti ! We may assume, what I have tried to 

 show is impossible, that constant blows could produce thickness of 

 bone, not merely stimulate the bone to put forth what power of 

 thickening it had. Granting this, we have next to assume that 

 mere random knocks could produce the beautiful branching of the 

 antlers. Was there systematic hammering at the point where a 

 branch or tyne was to arise ? But if this view of the antlers is 

 discarded and they are attributed to Natural Selection acting 

 upon congenital variations, while the supporting muscles are ex- 

 plained as the inherited result of exercise, then we have two 

 principles which, to say the least of it, are not very good yoke- 

 fellows, expected to pull together. 



The skill How to account for the skill of neuter insects has been a 

 f Sweets ^ am ^ iar problem since Darwin's time. The wonderful archi- 

 tecture of the cells made by bees has impressed everyone who 

 has thought of the matter. Now the skill of the worker bee 

 is born in her : it is not due to a laborious education. And it 

 cannot be that skill acquired by practice by former generations 

 of workers has been transmitted as an instinct to the bees whom 

 we watch at work. The worker bee leaves no offspring behind 

 her. The whole hive are the children of one queen. She her- 

 self displays no skill except in depositing her eggs and in care- 

 fully distinguishing between those that are to develop into 

 drones or into workers. She is no builder like the ordinary 

 working members of the hive. If, on occasion, intelligent 

 adjustment to new conditions is required a modification of 

 the stereotyped architecture to suit a novel situation it is the 



