AIM, CONTENT, AND POINT OF VIEW 11 



It is rather natural that in a relatively newly 

 recognized subject like ecology this human aspect 

 has not been very fully discussed. For practical 

 reasons the ecology of man has been developed 

 largely independent of that of animals ; just as human 

 physiology and psychology have been developed 

 relatively independent of comparative or general 

 physiological psychology. To the mutual advantage 

 of these subjects they are now rapidly converging, 

 and we may anticipate a similar relation between 

 general animal ecology and the ecology of man. In 

 a general treatise on animal ecology the human 

 phase should not receive undue emphasis any more 

 than it should in a general physiology of animals 

 or in a comparative psychology. But, nevertheless, 

 the relationships of man and his animal associates 

 (slaves, domestic animals, rats, mice, parasites, etc.) 

 form as truly an animal association as do those of 

 the animals which live associated in some forest 

 glade ; and in all probability, before any approxi- 

 mately complete understanding can be had of the 

 human associations, their roots and principles of 

 activity must be known and understood in the less 

 aristocratic portion of his animal relatives. 



The recognition of the associational aspect of 

 ecology, as well as that human ecology is a part of 

 general animal ecology, is of recent origin. This is 

 very well shown in the following quotation from 

 Huxley (1854. On the Educational Value of the 

 Natural History Sciences) : 



"Biology deals only with living beings as isolated 



