e could have avoided. When the notion of utility
is rejected--and Eimer rejects it very emphatically in his discussions
on mimicry--it is undoubtedly difficult to arrive at the concept of a
perfecting tendency. This, however, can in no way mean that this
concept should be entirely banished from nature, even as the notion of
utility cannot be banished. Even if the coloration and design of the
wings of the butterfly do not reveal utility, other characteristics
certainly do reveal it. It is one of the fatal mistakes of Darwinism,
that it fails to recognize the possibility of dividing the characters
and qualities of organisms into two large groups, as I attempted
to do with more detail, for instance, in my "Catechism of Botany."
There I called them (p. 89) "Autochthon-morphological" and
"adaptive-morphological characters." The former reveal no relation
to utility, they are innate and distinguish the organism from other
organisms; the latter can be explained by means of certain vital
functions, hence they possess a certain utility and adapt themselves
more or less to environment. The former are permanent, the latter
changeable. Darwinians regard all the characters of organisms as
useful, physiological, and adaptive. If they have been hitherto
unable to make good this assumption, they appeal to our lack of
knowledge and console themselves with the thought that the future may
yet reveal the missing relations. The presence on plants and animals
of any autochthon-morphological characters means death to Darwinism,
because these can never be explained by means of selection and struggle
for existence.

Eimer is too much inclined towards the other extreme; he does not admit
the existence of adaptive-morphological characteristics. Viewed in this
aspect, his repudiation of mimicry may perhaps also seem somewhat harsh
and one-sided. In this narrowness of view must also be sought the
reason for his complete repudiation of Naegeli's principle of
perfection.

It is an incontrovertible fact that in the organic world there exists
an ascending scale from the imperfect to the perfect. Every organism is
indeed perfect in its own sphere and from its own point of view. But
perfection with reference to things of earth is a very relative
concept; many an organism which is perfect in itself, appears very
imperfect when compared with others. If, then, there is a gradation of
animals and plants from the lower to the higher, it is the task of the
t