198 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



is precisely the course taken by Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer when he encounters a 

 word which is inconsistent with his 

 materialistic preconceptions. Although 

 the purest processes of evolution have 

 certainly made that word, he rules it out 

 of court, and sets himself to devise a sub- 

 stitute which shall replace the mental by 

 some purely physical image. Thus, for 

 example, the word "adaptation" is in- 

 dispensable in descriptive science. Mr. 

 Spencer translates it, because of its im- 

 plications, into the mechanical word 

 "equilibration." 1 Thus the tearing 

 teeth of the carnivora are to be con- 

 ceived as " equilibrated " with the flesh 

 they tear. It is curious to find Mr. 

 Spencer thus indulging in an operation 

 which excites all his scorn when it is 

 resorted to by others. Adaptation is a 

 word born of evolution. Equilibration 



1 Principles of Biology ', vol. i. p. 466. 



