in PLEA OF ROMANES 169 



the wonderful purpose to which, in that 

 creature, they are actually applied. 

 Romanes was too honest not to admit 

 the force of the illustration when it was 

 put before him. He took refuge in the 

 plea that it is a solitary exception, and 

 he declared that if there were many such 

 structures in Nature he would " at once 

 allow that the theory of Natural Selection 

 would have to be discarded." x 



Of course this plea of absolute 

 singularity is negatived by the very 

 first principles of biological science. 

 There is not such a thing existing as 

 an organ standing absolutely alone in 

 organic nature. There are multitudes 

 of organs very highly specialised ; 

 but there is no one which, either in 

 respect to materials or in respect to 

 laws of growth, is wholly separate from 

 all others. What may seem to be 



1 Darwin and after Darwin^ vol. i. p. 373. 



