576 DISHARMONIES AND OTHER SHADOWS 



tomed to light, flies into the candle, and the lemmings on the 

 march seeking new territory swim out into the North Sea 

 and are drowned in thousands. But the most keen-scented 

 discoverer of disharmonies or * dys-teleologies ' will surely 

 not suggest that organisms should be adapted for unusual 

 exigencies rather than for the routine of daily recurrence. 

 Even when there are adaptations to peculiar exigencies, as 

 we see in the surrender of damaged parts and their regrowth, 

 these exigencies are of frequent recurrence. 



There are instances, however, of structures that do not 

 seem to work so well as we have got into the way of expect- 

 ing from organisms. Thus attention has often been directed 

 to the cumbersome twenty feet of intestine with which man 

 is burdened without corresponding compensation. It may 

 be doubted, however, whether much of a case can be made 

 of any of man's disharmonies, since he is evidently in process 

 of rapid change of habits. An organism originally adapted 

 to feed when he could rather than when he would, must not 

 complain too loudly if he is not perfectly adapted for abso- 

 lutely punctual and well-proportioned meals. 



In the case of some trees which spread their roots horizon- 

 tally at a slight depth it not infrequently happens during a 

 storm that the pressure of the wind on the branches causes 

 a strain too great for the roots to stand. The tree falls, 

 though in perfect health. This violent death reveals an 

 undoubted imperfection, but it also shows how physical con- 

 ditions eliminate such subtle defects as lack of proportion 

 between spread of sail and strength of mast. 



4. Disease. 



Those who would arraign Nature on the charge of tolerat- 

 ing disease may be almost dismissed from court. For, apart 



