THE WEAK SIDES OP NATURAL SELECTION. 6 1 



horse or cow. It cannot act defensively, since any animal 

 which might crush the spider will not even be aware of its 

 presence. And in order to overpower the creatures upon 

 which the spider feeds, a venom incomparably less intense 

 would suffice. A spider of similar properties is found in 

 Queensland, and its bite, if not fatal to man, causes intense 

 suffering. This species is black, with a red spot. 



There is another consideration which seems to me not 

 devoid of weight. Believers in Organic Evolution consider 

 that all the species of mammalia found, e.g., in Asia and 

 Africa, have been derived from one — or a few — pristine 

 placental forms. They suppose that in a similar manner the 

 mammalia of Australia have been derived from one — or a 

 few — pristine marsupial forms. But if we examine the 

 Australian species we find them analogues, or it might per- 

 haps be said parodies of the placental mammalian forms 

 existing in the rest of the world. Thus the extinct Thyla- 

 coleo camifex was in habits, form, and size, a lion, to be 

 distinguished from the true lion merely by its marsupial 

 bones. Diprotodon and Nototherium, also extinct, seem to 

 have approximated to the elephant. The tiger wolf, or 

 zebra wolf of Tasmania, is always, excepting its marsupial 

 features, an excellent imitation of a wolf. In like manner 

 various other Australian forms mimic the species of the rest 

 of the world. This seems to show that Natural Selection is 

 not supreme, but that its operation is over-ruled by some 

 unknown agency which keeps it within certain limits. 



We come now to another consideration. It is admitted 

 that most animals and plants produce so numerous a progeny 

 that were all to survive they could not find food. Hence the 

 destiuction of a large portion is imperative. But this process 

 is not, as Darwinism supposes, a methodical weeding out of 

 the unfit, whilst the healthiest and strongest are selected for 

 preservation. As far as we can see it is a perfectly random 

 operation. Mr. Wallace admits that the "weeding out" takes 

 place among insects to a great extent in the egg and larva 

 states, to which we may safely add in the pupa state. Of 

 the eggs laid by a female butterfly many perish as such with- 

 out ever seeing the light at all. But how is this effected? 

 Every egg of the whole brood is equally helpless on the 

 approach of a devourer or a parasite. For one that escape 8 

 in virtue of any superiority on its own part ten will owe their 

 survival to what — humanly speaking — must be pronounced 

 mere chance. One egg, without, any peculiar fitness on its 



