CHAPTER II 



EVOLUTION IS PROGRESS 



The word Evolution has come to mean, in modem 

 biology, especially the process in nature by which higher 

 forms and more complex organizations of life are attained, 

 through the changes in the life organism, which builds up 

 or accumulates its new characteristics. Evolution physical 

 is the result of efforts to better maintain and improve exis- 

 tence. At times conditions more or less variable or hostile 

 stimulate this activity, at other times when the environment 

 of a race may remain favorable and nearly constant, this 

 stimulus seems to disappear. At other times crowding by 

 increasing numbers causes competition among individuals, 

 each striving for maintenance or self -advancement. Under 

 these different incentives variations appear ; and are adopted 

 and cultivated, and fixed by use, so that new useful features 

 are made permanent, and old useless ones are abandoned; 

 and the creature slowly changes, and in the long course of 

 ages new varieties and new species are evolved and estab- 

 lished. 



281 



