1915] on Beauty, Design and Purpose in the Foraminifera 48a 



end of all bis amazing observations be says, '' Jh ne savent rien de 

 rien.'" I prefer to go back exactly balf a century to wben Pbilip 

 Henry Gosse, F.R.S., tban \Ybom no keener observer of marine 

 organisms ever lived, said, " Tbe more I study tlie lower animals, the 

 more firmly am I persuaded of the existence in them of psychical 

 faculties, such as consciousness, intelligence, and choice, and that 

 even in those forms in which as yet no nervous centres have been 

 detected. "1 A distinguished critic. Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, tells me 

 that I might as well claim intelligence and purpose for such plants as 

 the Tragopogons, whose seeds are fitted with a parachute, which 

 enables them to travel to new pastures. I almost wonder that I am 

 not accused of agreement with the whimsical suggestion of Samuel 

 Butler, who looked forward to the day when we should see little 

 engines playing about the doors of the engine sheds, whilst the 

 parent engine smoked peacefully inside. I refuse to admit that the 

 seed parallel has any bearing upon the case. I am dealing with the 

 utilization of independent materials collected by the Foraminifera 

 for a specific purpose. In the case of the seeds it is a development 

 of a useful integral part and a consequent " survival of the fittest " — 

 but if a bean in the kitchen-garden were to attach to itself the para- 

 chute of a Tragopogon and fly over the wall when in danger of its 

 life at the hands of the cook, that would be an exercise of purpose 

 and intelligence comparable with the phenomena which I have , 

 exhibited this evening. 



An evolutionary cycle is ex hypothesi continuous, and I refuse 

 to allow a consistent evolutionist to postulate a discontinuity in his 

 evolutionary cycle — he cannot at some unknown point introduce into 

 his bioplasm an outside and novel influence to which he gives the 

 name of " Intelligence." I claim that every living organism living 

 an independent existence of its own is endowed with the measure of 

 intelligence requisite to its individual needs. 



We must accumulate facts, we must assimilate phenomena, we must 

 strive after a comprehension of motive forces. To quote Prof. Mac- 

 Bride once more : " The use of hypotheses which assist in binding 

 together the facts observed in the behaviour of living things, and in 

 elucidating the laws which govern them .... may be regarded as 

 neither vital istic nor mechanistic, but as plain common-sense applica- 

 tions of the indicative method. In this way only it seems to me we 

 shall ever make progress with " explanations " of the phenomena of 

 life, for all " explanation " in the last resort consists merely in putting 

 together similar things." - 



But to arrive at a conclusion we must study the life-history of 

 these lowly organisms, which, as Prof. Verworn has said, seem to be 

 especially provided for the biologists, since of all living creatures they 



1 P. H. Gosse, A Year at the Shore, p. 247. London, 1865. 



2 E. W. MacBride, in Nature, vol. 94, p. 304. Nov. 19, 1914. 



