surroundings, ceases to be bright green, and becomes a sombre grey. Put him among foliage again, and his green soon returns. It cannot be said that the green foliage has caused his colour to change. It is more correct to say that he has the power of changing his colour to suit his environment. If the frog happens to be blind, no change of colour takes place; so that it is by the help of the eye and the nervous system that the change is effected."[1] Thus, even the lower animals have some say in their development; they are not absolutely at the mercy of their environment.
(e) When we come to man, we find that his command over his environment is much more complete than that of the lower organisms. Plants have no power at all to change their environment. Animals can move from one environment to another, but they can do very little to alter their environment. In general they must simply adapt themselves to their surroundings. Man is superior to the lower animals in his capacity to adapt himself to his environment. He can live on the Equator or at the North Pole; he can exist at sea-level or at an altitude of many thousand feet; he can travel thousands of miles on land, on sea, in the air, and under the sea. And man is the only animal that is able on a large scale to adapt his environment to his own needs and uses. The Hollander makes his country by building dykes to shut out the sea. The Englishman makes the desert blossom like the rose by damming the Nile. Man makes his environment his slave.
- ↑ Headley: Problems of Evolution, p. 49.
