228 SPECULATIVE SCIENCE 



habits of the animal. Such a process of improvement as is 

 described could certainly never give organs of sight, smell, or 

 hearing to organisms which had never possessed them. It could 

 not add a few legs to a hare, or produce a new organ, or even 

 cultivate any rudimentary organ which was not immediately 

 useful to an enormous majority of hares. No doubt half the 

 hares which are born have longer tails than the average of their 

 ancestors ; but as no large number of hares hang by their tails, 

 it is inconceivable that any change of circumstances should breed 

 hares with prehensile tails ; or, to take an instance less shocking 

 in its absurdity, half the hares which are born may be presumed to 

 be more like their cousins the rabbits in their burrowing organs 

 than the average hare ancestor was ; but this peculiarity can- 

 not be improved by natural selection as described above, until 

 a considerable number of hares begin to burrow, which we have 

 as yet seen no likelihood of their doing. Admitting, therefore, 

 that natural selection may improve organs already useful to 

 great numbers of a species, does not imply an admission that it 

 can create or develop new organs, and so originate species. 



But it may be urged, although many hares do not burrow, 

 one may, or at least may hide in a hole, and a little scratching 

 may just turn the balance in his favour in the struggle for life. 

 So it may, and this brings us straight to the consideration of 

 ' sports,' the second kind of variation above alluded to. A hare 

 which saved its life by burrowing would come under this head ; 

 let us here consider whether a few hares in a century saving 

 themselves by this process could, in some indefinite time, make 

 a burrowing species of hare. It is very difficult to see how this 

 can be accomplished, even when the sport is very eminently 

 favourable indeed ; and still more difficult when the advantage 

 gained is very slight, as must generally be the case. The 

 advantage, whatever it may be, is utterly outbalanced by 

 numerical inferiority. A million creatures are born ; ten thou- 

 sand survive to produce offspring. One of the million has 

 twice as good a chance as any other of surviving ; but the 

 chances are fifty to one against the gifted individuals being one 

 of the hundred survivors. No doubt, the chances are twice as 

 great against any one other individual, but this does not prevent 

 their being enormously in favour of some average individual. 



