CHAPTER VIII 

 SOME ASPECTS OF E^COLOGY 



Temperature. The General Subject, p. 206 ; Fatal Temperatures : 

 A. Heat, p. 220 ; Fatal Temperatures : B. Cold, p. 221. 



Ecology is primarily concerned with the relationship between 

 organisms and their environment. It is to be regarded as a branch 

 of general physiology which deals with the life-processes of 

 organisms as a whole, as distinct from the functions of their 

 individual organs. In certain of its phases ecology grades into 

 pure physiology, and no hard and fast line can be drawn between 

 the two. Plant ecology has made more rapid and more definite 

 progress than animal ecology, a fact which is doubtlessly owing 

 to their stationary habit and the greater facility with which 

 they can be studied in intimate relation with the environment. 

 Animal ecology has only in recent years become subject to exact 

 experimentation, and it has, as yet, scarcely found its feet; as 

 applied to insects, it is insufficiently advanced to admit of any 

 far-reaching co-ordination of data, and its foundations lie in an 

 adequate conception of their physiology which at present does 

 not exist. 



Ecology has been divided into *' autecology," which treats of 

 the individual factors of the environment together with their 

 effects upon individual organisms ; and " synecology," which is 

 concerned with environments as consisting of combinations of 

 factors and their effects upon communities of organisms. In so 

 far as the present chapter is concerned, " autecology " alone is 

 implied, with the exception that combinations of environmental 

 factors are also briefly considered. These several agencies are 

 discussed more especially with reference to their influence on 

 metabolism and general development. 



