INADEQUACY OF NATURAL SELECTION, ETC. 003 



measured, the end of the forefinger has thirty times the tactual 

 discriminativeness which the middle of the back has. 



Between these extremes he found gradations. The inner 

 surfaces of the second joints of the fingers can distinguish 

 separateness of positions only half as well as the tip of the 

 forefinger. The innermost joints are still less discriminating, 

 but have powers of discrimination equal to that of the tip of 

 the nose. The end of the great toe, the palm of the hand, and 

 the cheek, have alike one-fifth of the perceptiveness which the 

 tip of the forefinger has ; and the lower part of the forehead has 

 but one-half that possessed by the cheek. The back of the hand 

 and the crown of the head are nearly alike in having but a four- 

 teenth or a fifteenth of the ability to perceive positions as dis- 

 tinct, which is possessed by the finger-end. The thigh, near the 

 knee, has rather less, and the breast less still ; so that the com- 

 passes must be opened more than an inch and a half before the 

 breast distinguishes the two points from one another. 



What is the meaning of these differences ? How, in the course 

 of evolution, have they been established ? If " natural selec- 

 tion," or survival of the fittest, is the assigned cause, then it is 

 required to show in what way each of these degrees of endow- 

 ment has advantaged the possessor to such extent that not infre- 

 quently life has been directly or indirectly preserved by it. We 

 might reasonably assume that in the absence of some differentiat- 

 ing process, all parts of the surface would have like powers of 

 perceiving relative positions. They cannot have become widely 

 unlike in perceptiveness without some cause. And if the cause 

 alleged is natural selection, then it is necessary to show that the 

 greater degree of the power possessed by this part than by that, 

 has not only conduced to the maintenance of life, but has con- 

 duced so much that an individual in whom a variation has pro- 

 duced better adjustment to needs, thereby maintained life when 

 some others lost it; and that among the descendants inheriting 

 this variation, there was a derived advantage such as enabled 

 them to multiply more than the descendants of individuals not 

 possessing it. Can this, or anything like this, be shown ? 



That the superior perceptiveness of the forefinger-tip has thus 

 arisen, might be contended with some apparent reason. Such 

 perceptiveness is an important aid to manipulation, and may 

 have sometimes given a life-saving advantage. In making 

 arrows or fish-hooks, a savage possessing some extra amount of it 

 may have been thereby enabled to get food where another failed. 

 In civilized life, too, a sempstress with well-endowed finger-ends 

 might be expected to gain a better livelihood than one with 

 iinger-ends which were obtuse ; though this advantage would not 

 be so great as appears. I have found that two ladies whose* 



