ADAPTATION 183 



vestiges and are not now adaptations may also 

 be past adaptations, or possibly they may be- 

 come such in the future; it is only certain that 

 they now do not particularly fit the species for 

 survival. Some characters, while undoubtedly 

 adaptive, give the impression that they are over- 

 done. The antlers of the deer, the fang of the 

 saber-tooth, the power of continuous growth of 

 the incisors of rodents, are all adaptations that 

 have in some instances proved to be too much of 

 a good thing. 



II. QUESTIONS 



In the words of Weismann, the most ardent of 

 the Darwinians, " Adaptations arise whenever 

 needed if they are at all possible." 



Adaptations have usually been looked upon 

 as adjustments in the organism to its environ- 

 ment. The suggestion has more recently been 

 made that adapted environments and habits are 

 selected by animals adjusted to them. 



Is a man healthy and strong because he prac- 

 tises athletics, or is he practising athletics because 

 his strength inclines him to athletic sports? We 

 have all been modified by our environment and 

 by our activities. It is at least suggestive that 

 some of us have never taken to pole-vaulting and 

 should not have made a record if we had. Evi- 

 dently there is a difference between the questions 

 of the origin of adaptations in the individual and 

 the origin of an adapted fauna. 



