112 The Unit /J of the Organism 



of clieniists because of tlieir toxic or medicinal properties 

 may be regarded as accidental, then it would follow that an 

 incalculably vast array of the phenomena of the living world 

 taken as a whole would come under the same stigmatization. 

 This would follow from the fact that the thoughtful natur- 

 alist is certain that the criterion of accidental (to wit, that 

 of non-usefulness from the survival-of-the-fittest standpoint. 

 Invoked by Bayliss) is no more applicable to these particu- 

 lar substances than to mvi'i^ids of structures and substances 

 and acti^'ities of the most diverse sort presented by plants 

 and animals. To illustrate, probably a majority of all 

 organic odors, and all flavors so far as these are difFeren- 

 tiable from odors, would have to be cast into the scientific 

 discard of accidentals. In fact, I believe any open-minded 

 taxonomist to-day will recognize that such a criterion of 

 accidental would thus dispose of a majority, probably, of 

 the attributes upon which he depends for distinguishing 

 species, varieties, and races. And this brings up the ex- 

 ceedingly important question, is not such a physiological 

 conception as that expressed by Bayliss due largely to the 

 influence of the natural selection hypothesis, a conception 

 which came straight from natural history .^^ Bayliss's own 

 words seem to constitute an affirmative answer to this query. 

 But natural history is becoming convinced that while the 

 numerous activities of organisms which Darwin grouped to- 

 gtjflu'r and named the struggle for existence are of very 

 great importance, they have very little originative power 

 in a strict sense. This conviction is being forced upon nat- 

 ural history from two of its main fields of research, namely 

 from that of taxonomy and that of genetics. The exact 

 taxonomic studies of to-day, especially such of them as 

 give due attention to the relation of the groups to their 

 environment, are at one with studies on mutation and Men- 

 delian heredity in denying to adaptation and natural selec- 

 tion the supreme role in evolution assumed by the Darwinian, 



