EDWARD COPE 83 



the contrary, result from a degeneration of organs 

 formerly well developed. 



Cope admits the difference between adaptive 

 and non-adaptive structures so brilliantly set forth 

 by Kowalevsky. Then, generalizing still further 

 this conception, he succeeds in formulating, under 

 the name of doctrine of non-specialization, a law 

 which is, in his eyes, one of the most important 

 as regards evolution, and, as it were, the touch- 

 stone of the method. This interesting point de- 

 mands an explanation. Palaeontology shows that 

 the succession of beings has not followed one single 

 direct line ; there exists a large number of diverging 

 lines, many of which are extinct. Life has' been, 

 with reason, compared to a tree with many and 

 ramified branches, of which many do not reach the 

 top. Even for those branches which we can trace 

 from their inferior lineaments up to our own day, 

 there are many which in their existing state have 

 become incapable of giving birth to higher forms. 

 The branches which have thus arrived at a certain 

 specialization of structure can no longer vary in a 

 direction very different from the one they have 

 already taken. These specialized types have had 

 much less chance of survival, and have perished 

 or are destined to perish through changes in their 

 surroundings. The evolution of the Vertebrates fur- 

 nishes Cope with very demonstrative examples of 

 the ineptitude of specialized forms. Thus, the 

 different classes of the Vertebrates must certainly 

 descend from the Fishes, but it would not be possible 

 to trace downward any actual type of our^too 

 specialized bony fishes. To discover the origin of 



