No. 627] 



ADAPTATION 



But would such a renunciation bring us any nearer to the 

 truth ? Only if we are ready to regard the whole science 

 of biology as a provisional one, a mere temporary rest- 

 ing place on the way to the more "exact" knowledge 

 which constitutes mathematical physics. How many of 

 us are prepared to make this admission? 



Before passing on to the next subdivision of our field, 

 a few words are desirable in answer to another general 

 criticism which may be raised against the line of argu- 

 ment here followed. Exception may be taken to the ap- 

 parent assumption that the responses to a new situation, 

 whether physiological or psychological, are wholly ran- 

 dom. Many responses are so obviously direct and un- 

 varying as to appear "fatally" determined.^- 



Again, even where "experimentation" or "trial and 

 error" is admittedly concerned in the process, the tenta- 

 tive efforts frequently lie within a quite restricted range 

 of possible movements, and from the first approximate 

 the goal to be reached much more nearly than if they 

 were wholly undirected. Thus the experiments of Hob- 

 house^^ upon various mammals suggest to him "that re- 

 cent writers have overestimated the effect of pure acci- 

 dent." Furthermore, ho concludes that "the more a 

 success was accidental the less likely were the animals 

 to take a(lvanta<>:e of it." So, too, in learning to throw 

 at ;i in;ii-k, we do not coinnience by casting our missiles 

 indi iVcvciit ly in cxcry direction, but from the outset we 

 throw tlu'ni in the ut'iicrnl direction of the target. And 

 tlie same is |)al])ahl\ true when we attempt the solution 

 of a nuMital ])i-ol)h.in. The trains of thonuht arc donht- 



than ivnl. Atlrr lh.' lir^l daN\n ut couM-ioux .ApM-imce, 

 no sitnalion is wholly nrw. KNvry }.n.hh.,.i whi,-h aris.^s 



