64 WHAT IS LIFE 



ment, for the egg possesses a power by which it is 

 absolutely able to modify the course of nature and 

 to arrive at its destination by a road never pre- 

 viously utilised by any egg. Some will reply that 

 this is because the egg is adapted to reach a 

 certain end and, therefore, does reach it. We 

 shall have to consider more carefully the question 

 of adaptations in a succeeding chapter but here it 

 may at once be said that to explain or attempt to 

 explain the occurrences which are about to be 

 described by that method is really tantamount to 

 explaining them by saying that what is intended 

 to happen must happen, which does not help us 

 very far upon our road. 



And even those who hold to the most mechani- 

 cal idea of adaptations, if such a word has any 

 real meaning in the mechanical philosophy, which 

 may be doubted, even these will be forced to admit 

 that adaptations in nature would naturally be 

 provided for purposes likely to occur in the ordin- 

 ary course of nature. Now steps in the experi- 

 mental embryologist, and with all the resources 

 which science provides him with he sets himself to 

 work to modify and distort the course of nature. 

 What is the result ? Within limits and wonderfully 

 wide limits, the egg gets the better of him, for it 

 arrives at the haven for which it set out without 

 being deterred by the difficulties put in its way. 



