258 
HAROLD’S DISCUSSIONS. 
The struggle for mainteuaiice brings into plaj 
certain organs of the animal more than others, and of 
course produces modifications of them. The black¬ 
smith’s arm is a familiar illustration of this fact. 
]^ot only the enlargement of organs but even their 
origin has been accounted for on the principle of use. 
For instance, it is supposed that the antlers of the 
deer originated in the struggle for male supremacy. 
Bumping heads together first hardened the skin and 
developed protuberances; later came the antler with 
its tines. 
Professor Dawkins has carefully examined the fos¬ 
sils of deer, and he finds that the earliest form which 
existed in the Middle Miocene had only clublike pro¬ 
tuberances on the crown. The Upper Miocene deer 
showed enlargement of these protuberances. In the 
next age we find deer with antlers of the Axis and 
Eusa” types, having three tines; and specimens of 
the Pleistocene period possess the complete modern 
antler. 
This seems to corroborate the use and disuse ” 
theory of development. But how has it come about 
that deer lose their antlers every spring ? Why is it 
that the horns of the moose are so broad and clumsy ? 
The theory of use and disuse was first stated by 
M. Lamarck. He was a Frenchman and the colleague 
of Cuvier, the great French scholar who laid the 
foundations of paleontology. Lamarck was the first 
to set forth a definite theory of the origin of species. 
He believed that when a new want arose the animal 
exerted itself to supply that want, and that this exer- 
