34 6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



underlying creative life. Mr. Reinheimer has seized upon certain aspects of 

 biology only too often overlooked or taken for granted in ordinary biological 

 works. Firstly there is the remarkable interdependence of different organisms, 

 which are almost as closely connected as the links of a chain, and secondly there 

 is that phenomenon known as symbiosis. In passing, it may be noted that the 

 meaning of the word symbiosis is strained far beyond common usage. Upon 

 these two points the author builds up a theory, not claimed as subsidiary, but, 

 as pointed out above, " the great principle." We must confess that we have not 

 read the other books that the author with rather annoying repetition insists on 

 pointing out he has written, and of which the present volume is in some measure 

 an expansion. Perhaps because of this any attempt to trace a general theory 

 running through the work has not met with success. Many interesting biological 

 phenomena are referred to, and the author has evidently kept himself well 

 informed of modern work, no small task in itself. 



The vocabulary of biology is already so large as to be almost unwieldy, but 

 when an author adds to it terms drawn from political economy the result does 

 not add to clearness of thought. We find, for example, " What the animal wants 

 is good currency — direct from the physiological mint, i.e. the plant " ; " It is 

 only prejudice which denies that we are justified in looking upon the activities 

 of organisms as ' work ' and upon results as remuneration in the economic sense 

 of the term " ; plant protoplasm possesses the secret of " storing the results of its 

 surplus labour (capital) for future use," and so on. In the places where he 

 speaks of evolution by co-operation he implies a great deal. Co-operation in the 

 economic meaning implies a means of avoiding competition and its results, so 

 that he infers the presence of a competition or, biologically speaking, a struggle 

 for existence. This surely is not a principle to be lightly set aside. One more 

 factor adds to the difficulty of following the argument in many places, and this 

 is that the author has consciously or unconsciously adopted some sort of moral 

 code into which the whole of the evolutionary phenomena must fit. It is stated 

 that parasites have taken to " dishonest means " of obtaining food ; animals 

 adopt " bad food habits," are " ill advised," have " morbid inclinations," have a 

 desire for " surfeit " when referring to feeding. To show the way in which such 

 words are employed we quote the following, used with regard to Convoluta ros- 

 coffensis after " temptation leads them into the paths of indulgence " : " The 

 animal first rendered strong by auspicious ancestral dynamics proceeds to abuse 

 its powers, and destroys and devours the weaker instead of cultivating and 

 protecting its true complement. When in extremis of hunger and of bankruptcy 

 it does not hesitate even to devour its own kith and kin. The diathesis so 

 produced in turn provides the soil for other would-be profligates of every 

 description.'' 



In addition to this biological assumptions are made that are not justified ; 

 for example, we are told that structure follows function, that sex has evolved 

 from a primitive hermaphrodite form, that the chloroplasts of Euglena are plant 

 cells, and so on. These may, of course, turn out to be correct, but it detracts 

 from the soundness of a deduction when it is made from statements which in 

 the present state of our knowledge must be regarded as " non-proven." 



From what has been pointed out above it will be seen that the whole book 

 is written in a diffuse and vague manner, and moreover the flow of sentences 

 or paragraphs is constantly interrupted by tags of Latin, Italian, French, and 

 German. Perhaps if it were reduced to about an eighth of its present size it 

 would make an interesting and probably stimulating essay. 



