The Problem of the Scoliae 



to consume, without incurring the risk of 

 putrefaction, so corpulent a prey: in brief, 

 before they combined these three conditions 

 of success, what did the Scoliae do? 



The Darwinian school will reply that they 

 were hesitating, essaying, experimenting. 

 A long series of blind gropings eventually 

 hit upon the most favourable combination, a 

 combination henceforth to be perpetuated 

 by hereditary transmission. The skilful co- 

 ordination between the end and the means 

 was originally the result of an accident. 



Chance ! A convenient refuge ! I shrug 

 my shoulders when I hear it invoked to 

 explain the genesis of an instinct so complex 

 as that of the Scoliae. In the beginning, you 

 say, the creature gropes and feels its way; 

 there is nothing settled about its preferences. 

 To feed its carnivorous larvae it levies 

 tribute on every species of game which is not 

 too much for the huntress' power or the 

 nurseling's appetite; its descendants try now 

 this, now that, now something else, at ran- 

 dom, until the accumulated centuries lead to 

 the selection which best suits the race. Then 

 habit grows fixed and becomes instinct. 



Very well. Let us agree that the Scolia 

 of antiquity sought a different prey from that 

 adopted by the modern huntress. If the 

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