Isotelj' aud Coralsuakes. 13 



specific features, iior are thej family characters, considering that 

 but few members of a large gTOup undergo these Elapoid chaiiges. 

 Nor are they always local, since at a given place Elaps may exhibit 

 pattern A and CoroneUa pattern B, and in another district the 

 reverse, and yet certain possibilities occur only in certain countries. 

 If it were a question of mere individual freaks, why are there no 

 red snakes in African forests? 



We may have to distinguish between variations whlch are within the 

 domaiu of reasonable, normal development and others wbich find no place 

 in the plan of a normal organisra. The latter are "freaks", and they may 

 also be inherited but they are sure to be eliminated, perhaps after generations, 

 as surely as a foreigu substance will be expelled. We cannot start a 

 lasting race of stump-tails by amputation, or a four-toed beast by pairing 

 off the inner toes, nor has nature proceeded in this violent way. But by 

 throwing more weight upon the other toes and thereby relieving the inner, 

 the former are stimulated to further growth, at the expense of the inner 

 which therefore becomes dwarfed. Then may be born future generations 

 of precocious individuals in which that inner toe exists no longer and 

 this defect by an "apparent" leap is likely to continue since it fits into a 

 perfectly conceivable new line of development, with new possibilities. 



The IJltra-Selectionists, by referring everything to selection, action by 

 elimination. have hypnotised themselves so far as to have eliminated from 

 this speculations the positive side of Nature's action. Verily, their's is 

 "der Geist, der stets verneint". Nature, whatever is meant by it , does 

 not stand opposed to the organic world. An organism is not merely a 

 corpus vile or "Versuchstier", it is itself a factor; it does not merely 

 and meekly submit to being put through the selection sieve, bat it remon- 

 strates, is stimulated by being sieved to make new efforts, to invent; and 

 thence result some variations. If not traced , or not traceable through 

 their stages, they may appear to us as leaps , as ready-made mutations 

 ä la DE Vries ; a gratuitous explanation like that which derived our 

 terrestrial life from some meteoric flora. Neither DE Veies' saltos mortales 

 nor the properly conceived mutations of Waagen are freaks but the 

 reasonable outcome of prevailing conditions , and an organism , be it in 

 evolution or in devolution, tends to work reasonably, barring accidents, 

 and in the long ruu so well as to seem to have a purpose. Because 

 since the beginning of life every "attempt" upon a new line leading to 

 unreasonable ends has come to grief sooner or later , now only the 

 reasonable lines are left. The organism has learned to nip the silly 

 variations in the bud before they can do härm since the Omission has, in 

 the long run , invariabiy implied the death of the individual. In this 

 sense selection is not only destructor but also instructor, not however con- 

 structor of her pupils, and if they had not Mneme, a subtle Substitution 

 for capability to inherit acquired characters, that class would make no 

 progress. 



