Note 3 — Chapter II · HOMOLOGY AND ITS EVOLUTIONARY INTERPRETATION

It may be remarked, in passing, that experimental genetics and mutation furnish no clue to the origin of adaptive characters. The Lamarckian idea alone gives promise in this direction. Orthogenesis leaves unsolved the mystery of preadaptation; yet only orthogenetic systems of evolution can be constructed on the basis of genetical facts. “Mutations and Mendelism,” says Kellogg, “may explain the origin of new species in some measure, but they do not explain adaptation in the slightest degree.” (Atlantic Monthly, April, 1924, pp. 488, 489.) We have seen in the previous chapter that they are impotent to explain in any measure the origin of new species.