200 WALTER KIDD, M.D., F.Z.S., ON 



after another is beiug devised, as the issues widen, and the 

 goal is as far off as ever. 



8 The very magnitude and sliifting character of these 

 doctrines and their complexity, at least justify the naturalist 

 in falling back on creation by an Intelligent Being, and a 

 Being wn'th Will as Avell as Power, and Morality crowning 

 all — that he may again turn to the study of a cosmos rather 

 than a chaos. 



9 Thus will Professor Schiller's timid references to the imper- 

 fection of existing adaptation, or those of Dr. Courtney at 

 this Institute as to the non-validity of the teleological argu- 

 ment by reason of that imperfection, find their adequate 

 answer. Such arguments as Helmholtz sanctioned by his 

 proof of the imperfection of the human eye as an optical 

 instrument, are met on the threshold by the terms of the 

 theory of Creation and Design, involving as they do Supreme 

 Will as well as Power. From the physicist's point ot view 

 there is nothing perfect in Nature. But such an organ as the 

 human eye may, without contradiction, be considered ade- 

 quate to the varying needs of the human race. Were it the 

 case that the human eye in palaeolithic times was perfect in 

 its adaptation to the needs of those days, this organ would 

 certainly not be such in the present day, were it not for 

 the adaptability of the mechanism bestowed upon it by 

 a Supreme Intelligence. In such departments of life as 

 this, again development finds its legitimate sphere. We 

 may be thankful for the power of development, even if 

 it be strangely near to a process of degeneration, under 

 which the emmetropic or hypermetropic eyes of our ruder 

 ancestors could be accommodated in the progress of ages 

 to the study of books, pictures, and microscopes, un- 

 known in early days. As much perfection is found in 

 higher animal life, especially that of man, as a wise 

 Creator bestowed. Who foresaw the value of struggle in the 

 strengthening and improvement of physical, mental, and 

 moral characters. Adequacy and adaptability are its limits. 

 Perhaps the nearest approach to perfection of adaptation is 

 found in parasites. 



10 After this digression from the province of Design, the other 

 side of our time-worn subject will be shortly studied. It is 

 one which is strangely ignored, and may be simply illustrated 

 from one of the favourite lines of argument for evolutionary 

 doctrines, embryology. 



n A mammalian embryo when fertilized undergoes in the 



