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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XLVII 



measurement, and that its proposal, especially if made 

 by one in an authoritative position, is far too apt to be 

 received as a declaration rather than as a question. 

 Thus, for example, our elementary texts may tell the 

 innocent beginner that brightly colored flowers are better 

 adapted to fertilization by insects than are their less 

 gaudy neighbors, and without critical analysis, a very 

 complex and exceedingly difficult problem is at once re- 

 garded as solved. As a matter of fact, this problem in- 

 volves comparative measurements for which methods 

 have not yet been devised, so that the cautious biologist 

 must regard the question of this proposed adaptation as 

 utterly beyond us for the present. 



Apparently possible potentialities which have not been 

 actually observed in nature, or which have not a basis in 

 quantitative comparisons so as to be possible of definite 

 establishment or refutation, have not played an impor- 

 tant role in the modern development of the sciences of 

 the non-living, and consequently the adaptational aspect 

 of the qualities of natural objects is seldom mentioned 

 in these sciences. The relative ease with which the quali- 

 ties of the non-living may now be analyzed into funda- 

 mental concepts renders the use of any other terms than 

 those of matter and energy quite out of place in their 

 serious discussions. On the other hand, biological in- 

 quiry has still much to do with theoretical attributes 

 which can not be put to any satisfactory test, and this 

 condition may be in part responsible for the prevalence 

 of the adaptational point of view in our science. It seems 

 to be partly because biological problems are too complex 

 for ready analysis at present, that the adaptational prop- 

 erties of living things are so often stated in terms other 

 than those of the fundamental concepts of matter and 



In this connection it is, however, to be remembered that 

 ease of analysis depends as much upon the state of the 

 analyzing mind as upon the complexity of the analyzed 

 object. A mind is conceivable, I think, that would con- 



