" CONTRE-EVOLUTION " 181 



like the " Thalassotheriens," many animals, including men, 

 are to be met with in which " la tote fait, de plus en plus, suite 

 au tronc, sans demarcation." The result is brought about by 

 bad feeding habits, and wherever we detect stigmata of this 

 kind, even in the more general appearance of the organism, there, 

 we must conclude, disease is present. 

 We are told that : 



les Thalassotheriens de pleine mer (Haleinc, Cachalot, etc.), sont plus 

 degeneres que ceux qui, ne quittant pas les cotes et ayant conserve" c'est 

 le cas de le dire nn picd-a-terre, vivent et se reproduisent en partie sur le 

 sol, comme les Sireniens et les Pinnipedes. 



It should surely be added that the Sirenia have conserved 

 their cross-feeding habits, and that the Pinnipedia have in all 

 probability only comparatively late in their history become 

 converted to in-feeding habits, their glands thus retaining 

 considerable capacities of manufacturing useful secretions even 

 from second-hand food. 



The chief " stigmate " of the Cetacea, according to Dr. Larger, 

 consists in " asymetries cranio-faciales," although, here too, we 

 meet with osteoporosis, or " hypertrophie spongieuse des os," 

 or even with " Osteosclerosis " (Os craniens eburnes) " ce qui 

 reduit a neant 1'argument unique tire de la flottabilite par allege- 

 ment." That the " Biologistes normaux " cannot account for 

 numerous features otherwise than by classing them as " useful 

 in combat," does not deter Dr. Larger from classing them as 

 pathological, which, in truth, they very often are. I fully agree 

 with him when he says : 



Dans ces cas, comme dans beaucoup d'autres, je le repete, la Nature 

 fait effort pour profiter de 1'existence d'une lesion pathologique, en la 

 transformant, tant bien que mal, en une mutation plus ou moins utile. 

 Mais, en verite, on n'a pas le droit de dire que c'est premedite' et normal 

 de sa part ; et n'est-ce pas veritablement forcer la note que d'y voir une 

 mutation proprement adaptative ? 



As far as possible, i.e., as far as the frailty of life permits, 

 Nature is for ever trying to make the best of a " bad job," and 

 this fact should not be lost sight of, if we are to understand the 

 nature of the condominium of good and bad characters in a 

 species . In point of interpretation, however, neither "adaptation, 

 nor " mutation," nor " struggle " would satisfy me, seeing that 

 all these terms are employed without a bio-economic standard 

 of usefulness or normality. 



