ORGANIC EVOLUTION — THE FACTORS 107 



whicli are founded on that supposition are fantastic 

 and wild to a degree. K one thing is denuded of blood 

 it does not follow that another thing will atrophy. If 

 the eye of an animal be denuded of blood, much is 

 taken for granted when it is assumed that its germ 

 cell, situated far distant, will proliferate into an organism 

 with an atrophied eye. It is precisely the physiological 

 processes that Mr. Spencer fails to keep in the fore- 

 ground, and, in this case, no one more than he fails to 

 profit by the salutarj- advice ; " Clearer conceptions of 

 these matters would be reached if, instead of thinking 

 in abstract terms, the physiological processes concerned 

 were brought into the foreground." 



