Is Nature Perfect ? 
275 
1879.] 
Again, we often see large groups of closely-allied species, 
differing but little from each other, inhabiting the same 
country, dependent upon the same kind of food, and exposed 
to the same enemies. Thus there are in Britain alone fifty- 
seven species of the small dung-feeding beetles included 
under the genus Aphodius. Some of these are exceedingly 
abundant, others comparatively rare. If all these species 
are perfect, and perfectly adapted to their environments, why 
should some be so much more plentiful than others ? But, 
descending more closely to particulars, we may show that in 
animals, as in man himself, there are certain desiderata — 
wants which Nature has left unsupplied. How exceedingly 
uncomfortable should we, for instance, feel if we were sud- 
denly deprived of the power which we now enjoy of excluding 
the light from our eyes when we think proper ! Yet as 
regards the sense of hearing we labour under a similar defi- 
ciency ; it might rather be said under a greater, since to all 
persons who have occasion to concentrate their thoughts 
upon some given subject noise is a far greater nuisance than 
light can ever be to a healthy man. Surely, then, our in- 
ability to render ourselves temporarily and voluntarily deaf 
is a proof that we, in one respect at least, fall short of 
perfection. 
We may take another instance : what a great addition 
would it be to man’s comfort if he were personally offensive 
to all insedts of the Dipterous order, so that they would 
keep aloof from him in disgust ! When we consider that 
the mosquito, in addition to the positive irritation, annoy- 
ance, and want of sleep which its attacks occasion, is now 
proved to be an agent in the spread of leprosy, — when we 
remember that the common house-fly is a propagator at 
least of ophthalmia, and probably of all zymotic disease, — - 
we surely cannot dispute that such a change, either in the 
nature of our cutaneous emanations or in the tastes of these 
pests, would be an incalculable boon, lacking which we 
cannot proclaim ourselves physically perfect. 
Did we know the necessities of other animals as well as 
we know our own, we might doubtless find in like manner 
defects on all hands. But we have surely said enough to 
lead the advocates of organic perfection — who often find in 
this dogma an d priori objection against Evolution — to pause 
and reconsider the evidence upon which it is based. 
The last of the popular assumptions concerning Organic 
Nature which we can here notice is the old, but still ram- 
pant notion that every plant, every animal, exists with 
reference to man, and for his convenience. “ What use is 
