88 



THE AMEBIC AX NATURALIST 



[Vol. XL VII 



lines determined chiefly by the momentary state of the 

 individual concerned. 



That animal reactions of an adaptive kind may possess 

 qualities that apparently exceed the possibility of origin 

 through selective operations has often been pointed out. 

 In fact it is from this standpoint that adaptation as a 

 sort of transcendental property of the organism has 

 gained its most ardent votaries. And it must be admitted 

 that the illustrations given in support of this view are 

 most baffling and perplexing to the opponents. That a 

 dog which has had its diet changed from bread to meat, 

 should quickly exhibit a change in its pancreatic juice 

 from a type well adapted to bread and poorly adapted to 

 meat to another in which the reverse is true, is a fact of 

 adaptation the explanation of which seems beyond reach. 

 Here we are face to face with what appears to be a quick 

 adaptation of a thoroughly successful kind and without 

 the intervention of nervous activity. No wonder that in 

 face of facts, such as these, the more speculative members 

 of the biological eamp seize their entelechies as the only 

 weapons with which they may hope to do battle. But 

 after all is the entelechy a reliable weapon. In all reac- 

 tions of the kind just mentioned, we are prone to say that 

 though there is not the least reason to suppose that intel- 

 ligence has really intervened, the whole affair passes off 

 as though directed by some such agent ; hence we assume 

 some intelligence-like factor, some entelechy, to be active 

 for the time. But when we look at the matter deliber- 

 ately, we must admit that intelligence is only our own ex- 

 pression for that aggregate of nervous states and actions 

 which is our chief means of adaptation. To say then that 

 one category of adaptive acts, the adjustment of secre- 

 tions to particular kinds of food, has a fundamental re- 

 semblance to another category of adaptive acts, our in- 

 telligent performances, is not to offer an explanation but 

 to leave the matter where it was. When we know more 

 of the real nature of intelligence, we shall be in a better 

 position to attack the problem of adaptive reactions, and, 



