378 THE STRUCTURE OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
building up of the organization and the other directly opposed to this" (1880, pp.
17 - 18 ).
Hyatt also tries to provide direct evidence for the ontogenetic construction of
phylogeny. He notes, for example, that ordinary adults of regressive lineages reach
stages found only in the most degenerate individuals of progressive populations—
those that have grown far past their normal adult form to a marked senility. The
ruinous dotage of a progressive individual therefore corresponds with the ordinary
adult form of a phylogerontic race (1880, p. 17).
- Why, in the same lake and during the same general period, do some
lineages progress while other closely related lines regress? Again, no functional or
adaptationist answer can suffice, for the same times and environments should not
engender opposite responses in such closely allied lineages. The solution must
reside in internal orthogenesis. Lineages progress or regress according to their
internal state—particularly, their status in the unrolling of the grand potential
ontogeny. Progressive lineages, in their phyletic youth, can resist a harsh
environment; but regressive sequences, in their phyletic dotage, must succumb.
Hyatt's four lineages achieve their distinctions by occupying different positions in
the grand potential ontogeny. His three progressive lineages evolve in the vigor of
their phyletic youth or maturity; meanwhile, the regressive series decline in their
phylogerontic senility.
Environment does not, as in functionalist theories, operate as an aid or
entrainer, but rather as a clear detriment and degrading force. Lineages in their
phyletic youth can prevail by innate virility against the incessant storm:
How shall we account for the progression of the progressive series? How
then could this environment act upon such closely allied shells, in such an
opposite way as to cause the decrease of some races and be entirely healthy
for others? We habitually refer such questions among animals, and in man,
to the innate strength or pliability of the constitution of the race or the
individual, and account for the survival, growth, and development of races
and individuals by this reference to their supposed ability either to resist
change in their surroundings, or to become modified in accordance
therewith ... Precisely the same environment, therefore, may produce results
diametrically opposed to each other, even upon different individuals of the
same species or closely allied forms, provided there is anything in the
constitution either directly acquired or inherited, which enables the
organization of one to resist or fit itself to conditions which the other
cannot healthfully endure (1880, p. 16).But lineages in phyletic senility cannot prosper; their decreases in size denote
waning viability, and their irregularities of growth signify the last gasp of faltering
strength. A wounded or senile individual in a progressive race may uncoil in injury
or dotage, whereas the same fate awaits all ordinary adults in regressive stocks.
"Retrogressive characteristics... could be compared with the pathological
conditions, normal or abnormal, of occasional diseased and senile individuals of
the progressive series. They [regressive features] are...