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Natural Selection. In this case it is proved to be so. 
In these circumstances we surely ought to explain other 
cases by this, rather than to attempt to explain this so 
as to harmonise it with the theory which it contradicts 
throughout. 
We have already endeavoured to show that the con 
spicuous colours of certain caterpillars are not capable of 
being brought under the law of Natural Selection ; how 
much less, then, so clear a demonstration of the falsity of 
the principles of Natural Selection ! As Mr. Romanes him 
self says, “ It almost seems to have been specially designed 
for the discomfiture of Darwinians.” And there I will 
venture to leave the matter, until some method is found 
to reconcile this phenomenon with the theory of Natural 
Selection ; but I confess that it requires more faith than 
I possess to believe that such explanation will ever be 
forthcoming. 
In the preceding chapters, I have endeavoured to show 
that the arguments for the process of Organic Evolution are 
not to be accepted as arguments for Natural Selection as a 
law of nature dominating that process ; that the proofs, or 
assumed proofs, for the transmutation of species by means 
of Natural Selection do not confirm our conviction of 
the truth of Organic Evolution ; and that in the treat 
ment of imperfect organs the theory of Natural Selection 
hinders us in the attempt to realise the process of Organic 
Evolution, while it proves itself an untenable theory by 
demanding that, on its principles, nascent organs must be 
always useful to its possessor, and that the “ rudimentary,” 
or, in other words, the degenerate and useless, organs 
ought to be eliminated ; while, as a matter of fact, they 
are not.