104 A NEW THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



the structure of the snake or of the whale. 

 Darwin does attempt to explain by disuse 

 the sightless eyes of some fishes found in 

 caves, but on the much more signal degra- 

 dation of the snake and the whale he is 

 silent. 



Huxley indirectly suggests a solution l by 

 extending the doctrine of the struggle for 

 existence to the molecules in the germ-cell. 



"It is a probable hypothesis," he says, 

 " that what the world is to organisms in 

 general, each organism is to the molecules 

 of which it is composed. Multitudes of 

 these, having diverse tendencies, are com- 

 peting with one another for opportunity 

 to exist and multiply, and the organism 

 as a whole is as much the product of the 

 molecules which are victorious as the fauna 

 or flora of a country is the product of the 

 victorious organic beings in it. On this 

 hypothesis hereditary transmission is the 

 result of the victory of particular molecules 

 contained in the impregnated germ." 



Expression of type may possibly be the re- 

 sult of the victory of the Specific life-force of 

 either parent in a competition for the control 

 of the molecules that determine expression, 

 but that, if we are disposed to consider such 



1 Darwiniana, p. 115. 



