It should be pointed out that this part of the theory is almost wholly discredited by biologists. Experimental evidence is against it. Nevertheless in a descriptive account of Darwin's theory it may be allowed to stand without critical comment. Inadequacy of Natural Selection.--In nature, under the struggle for existence, the fittest will be preserved; and natural selection will operate toward the elaboration or the suppression of certain organs or certain characteristics when the elaboration or the suppression is of advantage to the animal form. Much has been said of late as to the inadequacy of natural selection. Herbert Spencer and Huxley, both accepting natural selection as one of the factors, doubted its complete adequacy. One point is often overlooked, and should be brought out with clearness; _viz._, that Darwin himself was the first to point out clearly the inadequacy of natural selection as a universal law for the production of the great variety of animals and plants. In the second edition of the _Origin of Species_ he says: "But, as my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species exclusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first edition of this work and subsequently I placed in a most conspicuous position,--namely, at the close of the introduction--the following words: 'I am convinced that natural selection has been the main, but not the exclusive means of modification.' This has been of no avail. Great is the power of steady misrepresentation. But the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure." The reaction against the all-sufficiency of natural selection, therefore, is something which was anticipated by Darwin, and the quotation made above will be a novelty to many of our readers who supposed that they understood Darwin's position. Confusion between Lamarck's and Darwin's Theories.--Besides the failure to understand what Darwin has written, there is great confusion, both in pictures and in writings, in reference to the theories of Darwin and Lamarck. Poulton illustrated a state of confusion in one of his lectures on the theory of organic evolution, and the following instances are quoted from memory. We are most of us familiar with such pictures as the following: A man standing and waving his arms; in the next picture these arms and hands become enlarged, and in the successive pictures they undergo transformations into wings, and the transference is made into a flying animal. Such pictures are designated "The origin of flight after Darwin." The interesting circumstance is this, that the illustration does not apply to Darwin's idea of natural selection at all, but is pure Lamarckism. Lamarck contended for the production of new organs through the influence of use and disuse, and this particular illustration refers to that, and not to natural selection at all.