1906.] IN MEXICAN LIZARDS. 297 



creature's organism itself, since the 20 glands can easily do the 

 extra work between them *. 



The same reasoning applies to the protection of the forearm. 

 The nature of the ground over which these lizards have to run, 

 conceivably may directly influence, stimulate, these gaiters com- 

 posed of long rows of broad scutes. I leave it open, not always 

 to rouse the anti-Lamarckian ire, whether the scutellation is 

 due to natural selection ; but I want to know why these same 

 scutes are lost again by those delegates of a gaitered kind which 

 have straddled into forests or upon sandy ground. Or, another 

 point of view. The "granulated specimens " of C mexicanus from 

 Cuernavaca and Cuautla {cf. p. 367), or those of C. communis 

 occidentcdis from Patzcuaro, should be at such an obvious dis- 

 advantage to their gaitered brethren that these tendencies ought 

 to have been eradicated long ago. 



Would anyone be bold enough to stipulate a physiological 

 difference between the possession of 3 or 4 supraoculars ? Fine, 

 instead of coarse, granulation prevails in the skin of the deppei- 

 group ; their whole organism is imbued with this acquii-ed 

 character, and this tendency is likely to spread, to assert itself in 

 all those parts where scales and scutes are not positively required . 

 In most sj)ecies with normally 4 supraoculars these are bordered 

 behind by one or more rows of granules ; in some specimens the 

 last supraocular is split, or much reduced (e. g. text-fig. 71 A, 

 p. 303), and there are moi-e granules, and granules fill its whole 

 space in the deppei-growp, except in those old-fashioned individuals, 

 about 10 percent, with rather local predilection, which still retain 

 the original number. That is all, neither more nor less ! 



Every normal organism, and its constituent organs jointly or 

 sepai-ately, tends towards greater perfection f. It is under the 

 influence of the law of perfection. This must be so unless the 

 whole idea of onward evolution is a dream, and it is a necessary 

 outcome of the principle of the inheritance of acquired characters. 



* Here we are treading on uncertain ground. However, I have found many 

 dozens of cases in which one or two of the distal pores of the whole series are 

 imperfect, or very small, obviously not functional; and frequently on the other leg 

 the corresponding pores are altogether missing. These may be cases of retrogression, 

 of decreasing pores ; but mj' argument is of course valid for de- and increase. Onlj',. 

 somehow, one prefers to consider the largest nvimbers as representing the ultimate,^ 

 newest condition. 



t I am well aware that I am treading here on dangerous ground and liable to be 

 misunderstood. The process involved may be mj'sterious, but it is not mystical. 

 " Perfection " and " law " are used for want of less equivocal turns ; the}' are 

 figures of speech, not concrete and absolute, but abstract and relative ideas. Few, 

 if any, creatures are perfect in the sense that they cannot be improved. Ornitho- 

 rhj'nchus may represent the acme of vertebrate perfection in the Murraj^ River, but 

 as a mammal it is lamentably imperfect. There is a "law of chances" ; it is not a 

 law made bj' the will of somebody, but a convenient expression for the average 

 summary of facts as they result from the " nature of things." A squad of raw 

 recruits may all make bulls' eyes, but they won't ! 



There is onward evolution and also degeneration or devolution or regressive meta- 

 morphosis, likewise after all progressive. To exclude the latter, I used the expression 

 "normal organism" for the sake of shortness. Those who scent teleology in 



