CHAPTER VII 

 MORE ABOUT ANIMAL LIFE 



THERE is a most important trinity of factors affect- 

 ing life in general that is not sufficiently ap- 

 preciated. For all living things, no matter 

 what they are, water, air and food are the prime neces- 

 sities. Everything else is in importance wholly 

 secondary. 



Physiological adaptations enable both animals and 

 plants to exist through the entire range of tempera- 

 tures found upon the earth, and also through the 

 entire range of illumination. Indeed, in the absence 

 of light many animals and plants are able to produce 

 themselves, through the phenomenon known as lumi- 

 nescence, a sufficiency of light of the quality necessary 

 for their well being, just as the birds and mammals 

 are able to create and to maintain the temperatures 

 necessary for the proper functioning of their bodily 

 reactions. 



While by various bodily adaptations, and especially 

 by diverse habits, certain types of animals are able to 

 store up and to conserve an adequate supply of water, 

 or at a time when water lost cannot be replaced to 

 enter, sometimes abruptly, a resting stage, none can 

 do without it. Furthermore, all living things when 

 active require a considerable amount of water. It is 

 the same with air, and again the same with food. 



From this it naturally follows that life, or rather 



