CORRESPONDENCE 497 



employs the most ideally balanced media for " currency " and 

 for " exchange " in the shape of surplus food substances ; 

 establishes the most perfect " tools " in the shape of enzymes 

 and ferments ; stores up wealth not only as capacities but also 

 as valuable correlations in virtue of which counter-services are 

 ever at the command of the beneficent organism. 



In nature again, just as in human society, all currency has 

 to have a redemptive basis (in work) and definite standards of 

 useful morality have to be obeyed. The bee, so long as it 

 remains a legitimate " trader," has a long " banking-account " 

 with the " Flowers Bank Ltd.," and the plant, so long as it 

 remains a manufacturer, working for " social " service rather 

 than for mere profit, has a valuable " account " with the 

 " Bee's Bank Ltd." All of which is at the same time typical 

 of the true relation between plant and animal and shows the 

 story of the animal as inevitably bearing the " brand of Cain " 

 to be a pure myth. No partner in Symbiosis is really the poorer 

 for what it is made to surrender legitimately. Darwin showed 

 that a whole circle of calamities must ensue if the bee, for 

 instance, gets its food feloniously. Organisms are not " villains 

 on necessity." 



Nunquam aliud nahira, aliud sapientia dicit. 



I. How is it that all this has not been perceived before ? 



W . Partly because of difficulties in connection with the 

 " slippery basis of metabolism," partly because of Darwin's 

 deliberate statement that we are as yet profoundly ignorant 

 of the mutual relations of the inhabitants of the world, and 

 partly because of dissatisfaction with and distrust of Political 

 Economy. 



I would only add that the question as regards the justifica- 

 tion of the sub-title of my book may well remain open. Mean- 

 while my theory will prove useful, so I venture to think, to all 

 those who are in quest of " causes " in Biology. Thanking you 

 for the insertion of this communication, I have the honour to 

 be, Sir, 



Yours faithfully, 



Hermann Reinheimer. 



SURBITON, 

 November 4, 191 5. 



