SYNTHESIS AND EVOLUTION 



end, and procures a rapid and easy death to some of 

 them, that checks the increase without injury to the 

 race surviving. 



Ages pass away ! Those descendants from the 

 distant past in whom evolution has reached a per- 

 manent type best suited to their environment pre- 

 serve their type unaltered. It is probable no change 

 could improve the beauty of form, the strength of 

 limb, or the speed and action of the horse ; the 

 combination of strength of wing and lightness of 

 structure in the bird ; or the fitness of the dolphin 

 for the water in which it lives. Many creatures, vast 

 in form and strength, that lived in times long gone 

 exist no longer. Others have supplanted them, bet- 

 ter fitted for their place. Modification of the muscles, 

 internal organs and of outward form seem at last to 

 have reached that point when change could not 

 bring further improvement. 



3" 



