CORRESPONDENCE 493 



Two companies of the crew were enough to man the two boats. 

 The whole crew consisted of the two companies or more. 

 Therefore the whole crew were enough or more than enough 

 to man the two boats. 



4. Dr. Mercier controverts the principle that all reasoning 

 consists in the application of general rules to particular cases. 

 He seems to forget that this principle applies only to reasoning 

 by argument, and not to what logicians call immediate infer- 

 ence, as when from Some German subjects are Poles, we infer 

 that Some Poles are German subjects. He offers Miss Steb- 

 bing a year to find the application of a general rule to a par- 

 ticular case in the following : 



If There are more little pigs than there are teats, 

 then One little pig must go without. 



He might as well have given her twenty years. There is 

 no reasoning here whatever. It is simply stating the same 

 thing twice over in different language. No form of words is 

 an argument unless it contains a conclusion which is not 

 specifically implied in a premiss. If you tell us that A is 

 greater than B, you are not giving us any fresh information 

 by saying that B is less than A. 



In my opinion Miss Stebbing has scored all four points 

 and may justly claim the game. 



Yours, etc., 



W. H. Winter. 



" SYMBIOGENESIS " 



Sir, — Kindly allow me to reply to the criticism contained in 

 a review of my book on Symbio genesis : The Universal Law 

 of Progressive Evolution, which appears in the October issue of 

 Science Progress. The point at issue briefly is : Do the 

 facts of inter-relatedness and of Symbiosis warrant my theory 

 together with its " bio-economic " and " bio-moral " implica- 

 tions ? 



For the sake of clearness my reply has taken the dialogue 

 form : /. is to stand for inquirer, and W. for writer. 



/. What do you mean by Symbiogenesis ? 



W . I mean the direction given to evolution by the long- 

 continued operation of Symbiosis in the production of higher 



