0)1 Some Interactions of Organisms. 5 



lessen and remove these disorders, he may, by his own in- 

 telligent interference, often avoid or greatly mitigate the 

 evils of his situation, as well as hasten their remedy and 

 removal. 



Some general notion of the original order of Nature, 

 which obtains where civilization has not penetrated, will 

 be needful for an understanding of the most important 

 consequences of the modifications of that order which man 

 brings to pass, — for an understanding of the relations of 

 our own industrial operations and interests to the general 

 laws and activities of the organic world under whose con- 

 stant influence we must live and work. 



There is a general consent that primeval nature, as in 

 the uninhabited forest or the unfilled plain, presents a 

 settled harmony of interaction among organic groups which 

 is in strong contrast with the many serious maladjust- 

 ments of plants and animals found in countries occupied 

 by man. This is so familiar a fact that I need not dwell 

 upon it, but will cite the reader to the generally accessi- 

 ble "Introduction to Entomology," by Kirby & Spence, 

 for a suflficient statement of it. It will be more to my jjur- 

 pose to discuss the subject from a different standpoint. 

 To determine the primitive order of Nature by induction 

 alone requires such a vast number of observations in 

 all parts of the world, for so long a period of time, that 

 more positive and satisfactory conclusions may perhaps 

 be reached if we call in the aid of first principles, traveling 

 to our end by the a priori road. 



For the purposes of this inquiry I shall assume as estab- 

 lished laws of life, the reality of the struggle for existence, 

 the appearance of variations, and the frequent inheritance 

 of such as conduce to the good of the individual and the 

 species, — in short, the evolution of species and higher 

 groups under the influence of natural selection. I shall 

 also postulate, as an accepted law of Nature, the general- 

 ization that the species is maintained at the cost of the indi- 

 vidual, — that, as a general rule, the rate of reproduction 

 is in inverse ratio to the grade of individual development 

 and activity; or, as Spencer tersely states this law, that 

 "Individuation and Genesis are antagonistic. " Evidently 



