12 Hans Gadow, 



not liowever in the sense of a beau ideal set by Natural Selection, 

 but in the sense of an attainable terminus, for instance a completely 

 red, or black dress. There is no further change possible beyond 

 these, except bleaching- into a sickly white by loss of pigment, or, 

 for arguments sake, in the case of monochrome red, a dusting or 

 smothering with new melanine. Only a monochrome is at comparative 

 rest ; the more complicated a pattern, the less stabile it is, and the 

 changes are by no means always improvements. 



Since the same changes, even the most perplexing combinations, 

 proceed alike in Elaps and in a great many other genera of diverse 

 groups, these changes are of supreme significance.^) They are not 



1) Certain patterns are vei'y complex and have a long history, for 

 instance that where alternate red bands have been turned into black. The 

 chances for this identical pattern to turn up in two difterent localities are 

 small for the same species , much smaller than that it should happen in. 

 the same place which is inhabited by several diflferent genera. And yet 

 this very pattern occurs in many species and in many places. Concerning 

 its usefulness it may be urged that the detail does not matter, but only 

 the general Impression of the three colours. Sorae evolutionists favour 

 the assumption that everything is the picked out residue of originally endless 

 variations, or as sonie prefer to say, radiation in every conceivable direction. 

 The apparently endless variations of our snakes seem to support their 

 view, and it might even be urged, that it would be good for Coronella 

 to Vary in every direction, so as to have a better chance of hitting off 

 any Elaps dress which they might come across. No doubt if the kaleido- 

 scopic game of all the possible combinations and permutations is played 

 long enough , the same pattern is bound to crop up repeatedly but the 

 chances would be very small. And yet this is of much more frequent 

 occurrence , because Nature plays with loaded dice. Only superficial 

 acquaintance with the material can doubt this. The variations are not 

 endless , they are bound to rules. Even the oddest are not brand new, 

 but have a long history and are but stages of an ascertainable series of 

 events. The sudden appearance of an ocellus with a pale centre, black 

 ring and white outer rim, is really the outcome of quite a complex 

 evolution ; and if now an individual is born with a complete ocellus it is 

 because its previous stages have been Condensed, on the strength of 

 cumulative inheritance. We deceive ourselves, forgetting that the individual 

 has a history beyond that little ontogenetic spell which to the embryo- 

 grapher is his all in all. In the repetition of a triad of colours there 

 must be anterio-posterior symmetry, eg. r e d - black-yellow-black -r e d, 

 but not red-black-yellow and then again red-black-yellow. These snakes 

 produce rings easily, but they cannot form longitudinal stripes because in 

 their early history they had developed dorsal blotches. The disposition of 

 mineral matter has a far reaching effect upon that of the other pigments. 

 The above instances of correlation are sufficient to indicate Orthogenesis. 



