110 WHAT IS LIFE 



the behaviour of the tubularian which has been 

 described in this chapter and then by way of 

 accounting for it says, in words which have been 

 quoted in the previous chapter : " This also appears 

 to us to be adaptive, and does not surprise us, 

 since we have long been accustomed to recognise 

 that what is adapted to an end will realise this if 

 it be possible at all". As a former chapter en- 

 deavoured to show, this so-called explanation is 

 no explanation at all. It does not explain how 

 the adaptation arose or how having arisen it carries 

 itself out. It is simply tantamount to saying " the 

 thing had to happen and so it happened " and put 

 in that simple language no person would be hood- 

 winked into supposing that they had received an 

 explanation when in reality they had only been 

 listening to a re-statement of the question. 



