464 Evolution and Adaptation 
form or another. This idea will remain, I think, a most 
important contribution to the theory of evolution, We may 
sum up our position categorically in the following statements: 
Animals and plants are not changed in this or in that part 
in order to become better adjusted to a given environment, 
as the Darwinian theory postulates. Species exist that are 
in some respects very poorly adapted to the environment in 
which they must live. If competition were as severe as the 
selection theory assumes, this imperfection would not exist. 
In other cases a structure may be more perfect than the 
requirements of selection demand. We must admit, there- 
fore, that we cannot measure the organic world by the meas- 
ure of utility alone. If it be granted that selection is not a 
moulding force in the organic world, we can more easily | 
understand how both less perfection and greater perfection 
may be present than the demands of survival require. 
If we suppose that new mutations and “definitely” in- 
herited variations suddenly appear, some of which will find 
an environment to which they are more or less well fitted, 
we can see how evolution may have gone on without assum- 
ing new species have been formed through a process of 
competition. Nature’s supreme test is survival. She makes 
new forms to bring them to this test through mutation, and 
does not remodel old forms through a process of individual 
selection. 
