134 The American Naturalist. [February, 
‘the same. Now the Bathyergus martimus of South America 
which has the habits of moles, but is really a rodent, has a 
precisely similar disposition of the parts. “Here the larger 
fibular flexor, as in Myogale, has forced the tibial flexor in- 
wards, so that the latter is attached to the head of the tibia 
internal to the attachment of the popliteus; and its tendon 
being separated in the foot from that of the fibular flexor, is 
attached, precisely as in the true insectivorous moles, to the 
tibial margin of the basil phalanx of the hallox, developing, 
as it crosses the ento-cuneiform articulation, a broad sesamoid 
ossicle.” Mr. Dobson then asks: “How happens it that in 
certain widely separated species, in no way connected by de- 
scent from a common ancestor having similar peculiarities, 
separation of this tendon from that of the fibular flexor and 
attachment to a different part of the foot has occurred in a 
perfectly similar manner?” He finds this very difficult to 
answer and can only suggest that the arrangement in question 
being the best, it has been reached independently in both 
species by natural selection. 
Those of us who look upon natural selection pure and simple 
as quite inadequate to what is already required of it, will not 
be disposed to call upon it to do double duty. Those who like 
myself, believe in design and ina limited evolution founded on 
law, while they may explain by teleology such instances as the 
last mentioned, can by no means apply that doctrine to anom 
alies. 
The mechanical theory that the action of certain muscles 
should account for certain processes, such as the third tro- 
chanter, is not admissable. I have shown that this anomaly 
occurs in savage races in which presumably all live pretty 
much the same life, and that further it occurs at too early an 
age to be caused by any strain in the individual.’ Even were 
this not so there are many anomalies which obviously can have 
no connection with mechanics. 
It is easier to destroy than to build. I can offer no substitute 
for the theories I reject which would itself stand criticism. I 
will merely offer the following as justifiable conclusions. 
5Loc. cit. 
