adaptations took place, which had not merely ephemeral persistence in a
genus, a family or a class, but which was continued into whole Phyla of
animals, with continual fresh adaptations to the special conditions of each
species, family, or class, yet with persistence of the fundamental
elements. Thus the feather, once acquired, persisted in all birds, and the
vertebral column, once gained by adaptation in the lowest forms, has
persisted in all the Vertebrates, from Amphioxus upwards, although with
constant readaptation to the conditions of each particular group. Thus
everything we can see in animals is adaptation, whether of to-day, or of
yesterday, or of ages long gone by; every kind of cell, whether glandular,
muscular, nervous, epidermic, or skeletal, is adapted to absolutely
definite and specific functions, and every organ which is composed of these
different kinds of cells contains them in the proper proportions, and in
the particular arrangement which best serves the function of the organ; it
is thus adapted to its function.

All parts of the organism are tuned to one another, that is, THEY ARE
ADAPTED TO ONE ANOTHER, and in the same way THE ORGANISM AS A WHOLE IS
ADAPTED TO THE CONDITIONS OF ITS LIFE, AND IT IS SO AT EVERY STAGE OF ITS
EVOLUTION.

But all adaptations CAN be referred to selection; the only point that
remains doubtful is whether they all MUST be referred to it.

However that may be, whether the LAMARCKIAN PRINCIPLE is a factor that has
cooperated with selection in evolution, or whether it is altogether
fallacious, the fact remains, that selection is the cause of a great part
of the phyletic evolution of organisms on our earth. Those who agree with
me in rejecting the LAMARCKIAN PRINCIPLE will regard selection as the only
GUIDING factor in evolution, which creates what is new out of the