MISPLACED RELIANCE. 149 



a single generation, but fails to perpetuate the 

 songs of birds. It modifies offspring like parents, 

 and yet allows the formation of two reproductive 

 types in plants, and of two or more types widely 

 different from the parents in some of the higher 

 insects. It is said to be indispensable for the co- 

 ordinated development of man and the giraffe 

 and the elk, but appears to be unnecessary for the 

 evolution and the maintenance of wonderful 

 structures and habits and instincts in a thousand 

 species of ants and bees and termites. It is the 

 only possible means of complex evolution and 

 adaptation of co-operative parts, and yet in 

 Mr. Spencer's most representative case it renders 

 such important parts as teeth and jaws unsuited 

 for each other, and is said to ruin the teeth by the 

 consequent overcrowding and decay. It survives 

 amidst a general " lack of recognised evidence," 

 and only seems to act usefully and healthily and 

 regularly in quarters where it can least easily be 



