196 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIII 



the organism comes into functional relation. And as 

 the organism evolves, these effective elements become 

 different. 



As I see the situation at present, the fact of organic 

 adaptation remains the central one in evolution, and in- 

 deed the central one in biology. I shall give no further 

 time, therefore, to justifying a rather laborious attempt 

 to show how this fact may be accounted for without car- 

 rying us outside the limits of natural science. Before 

 passing on to this discussion, I will merely remark that I 

 place in the category of adaptation anything which in- 

 creases the adjustment of the organism to the conditions 

 of its existence, whether or not this may ever have a de- 

 termining influence in the preservation of life. Many 

 such adjustments have arisen in our own race which cer- 

 tainly can have played no part in the survival of the indi- 

 vidual or the race. An example of this is the case dwelt 

 upon by Spencer, of the correspondence between the 

 nicety of tactile discrimination on various parts of our 

 skin and the relative frequency of contact with foreign 

 objects on these surfaces. And such cases could be mul- 

 tiplied indefinitely. Nevertheless, much recent biolog- 

 ical speculation has been vitiated by the identification of 

 adaptation with self-preservation. 



11. Adaptation and "Contingency" 

 If an intelligent animal is confronted with the neces- 

 sity of taking action to avoid injury or secure food, two 

 ways only would seem to be open to it : 



1. It may consciously adapt its actions to this end, or 



2. It may go through a series of more or less random 

 movements until it happens to make one which is fitted to 

 the needs of the situation. 



On first thought, it might seem that these two modes of 

 procedure were radically distinct, and indeed, in a sense 

 they are. Considered historically, however, the second 

 may be regarded as a step in the development of the first, 

 or, to express the same thought otherwise, intelligent 

 action is in every case the outcome of earlier experi- 



