Human Infancy and the Recapitulation Theory 75 



stitutive of intelligent or adaptive behavior. It appears from 

 the two accounts now under discussion that other causes may 

 contribute to this condition. The young of many carnivores 

 are thought to be born in their imperfect physical state be- 

 cause the agility required of the mother in catching living prey 

 would be seriously hindered by carrying heavy young. Among 

 nestlings in the less precocious birds helplessness is alleged as a 

 safeguard to premature hazardous beginnings in locomotion. 

 Thus helplessness as a condition due to unlearned adaptive 

 powers is to be distinguished from that induced by other biological 

 needs, as well as from that which may be unrelated to any utility. 

 The helplessness which associates with neuro-muscular plasticity 

 is presumably not a general condition at all, but is relative to 

 the learning that any species may accomplish in those special 

 directions characteristic of it. 



With regard to recapitulation in the period of infancy Mitchell's 

 statement is as follows: 



"... the young of nearly allied animals are much more 

 alike than are the adults. . . . We explain this by sup- 

 posing that the evolution of the individual to a certain extent 

 repeats the evolution of the race. . . . We have to re- 

 member, however, that this explanation is not complete, and we 

 shall find many characters of young animals to which it does 

 not apply. The young animal owes its characters not merely 

 to its ancestry; as much as the adult, it has to be fitted to the 

 special environment in which it lives. It is not merely a stage 

 in development, but an independent living creature with its 

 own needs and its own aptitudes, presenting characters that are 

 neither a memory nor an anticipation, neither a relic of the 

 past nor a preparation for the future, but suitable for its own 

 purposes." 21 



The tenor of Pycraft's statement is not greatly different : 



"Time was when it was believed that these early-growth 

 stages, if carefully followed, would reveal all the mysteries of 

 evolution, since, it was supposed, every animal had to climb its 

 own genealogical tree, so to speak. But it was soon found that 

 such hopes were over-sanguine, for records of some of the most 

 important phases have been lost completely, and others blurred; 

 while some of the phenomena have nothing to do with ancestry, 



« Mitchell, The Childhood of Animals, p. 7. 



