1896.] A New Factor in Evolution. 445 



1. By securing adaptations, accommodations, i„ <p,cial circa m- 

 stances the creature is kept alive (ref. 2, 1st ed., pp. 172 ff.). This 

 is true in all the three spheres of ontogenetic variation distin- 

 guished in the table above. The creatures which can stand 

 the "storm and stress" of the physical influences of the environ- 

 ment, and of the changes which occur in the environment, by 

 undergoing modifications of fh>ir congenital functions or of the 

 structures which they get congenitally — thesi creatures will live; 

 whih tho*. which ca,,nof. trill not. In the sphere, of neurogen- 

 etic variations we find a superb series of adaptations by 

 lower as well as higher organisms during the course of onto- 

 genetic development (ref. 2, chap. ix). And in the highest 

 sphere, that of intelligence (including the phenomena of con- 

 sciousness of all kinds, experience of pleasure and pain, imita- 

 tion, etc.), we find individual accommodations on the tremen- 

 dous scale which culminates in the skilful performances of 

 human volition, invention, etc. The progress of the child in 

 all the learning processes which lead him on to be a man, just 

 illustrates this higher form of ontogenetic adaptation (ref. 2, 



All these instances are associated in the higher organisms, 

 and all of them unite to keep the creature alive. 



2. By this means those congenita! or phylognictie variations 

 an kept in existence, which lend themselves to intelligent, imitative, 

 adaptive, and mechanical mollification daring tin. lifetime of the 

 creatures irhich have tin m. Other congenital variations are not 

 thus kept in existence. So there arises a more or less wide- 

 spread series of determinate vari -ion's onto- 

 genesis (ref. 3, 4, 5). 3 



9 " It is necessary to consider further how certain reactions of one single organ- 



ism can be selected so as to adapt the organism better and give i 



it a life history. 



Let us at the outset call this process " Organic Selection " in ec 





Natural Selection of whole organisms. . . . If th 



lection) worked 



alone, every change in the environment would weed out all life 



except those or- 



ganisms, which by accidental variation reacted already in the wa 



y demanded by 



the changed conditions — in every case new organisms showing va 



nations, not, in 



