THE ECOLOGY OF MAN—SEARS SEE 
ency of plants and animals to vary and showed that not all variations 
were equally well fitted to particular environments. And so he con- 
cluded that environment tends to eliminate the less fit while favoring 
their more suitable competitors. 
Thus were the seeds of two new sciences planted—genetics to deal 
with variation and inheritance, ecology to investigate the interrela- 
tion between life and environment. Curiously, a generation was to 
elapse before either gained much headway and when they did genetics 
raced ahead much the faster, for various reasons. ‘Toward the close 
of the 19th century, the pioneer work in ecology filtered across 
the Atlantic to receive its warmest welcome at two youthful uni- 
versities, both in the Midwest, Chicago and Nebraska. First to be 
developed was plant ecology, later came animal ecology and their 
combination, bicecology. Human ecology, our present concern, is 
still in a tentative stage, but the ultimate goal is a general ecology, 
embracing that of all forms of life. 
By this time ecology has proved its value in forestry, range, fish, 
and game management, where specialists are free to employ it. Its 
greatest potential service to mankind, however, can only be possible 
through voluntary public policy, based on widespread common 
knowledge and consent. Ecology is, above all, a source of perspec- 
tive in time and space and a means of understanding the great proc- 
esses of which we are necessarily a part. We now face urgent prob- 
lems in the allocation of population pressures, the use and care of 
environmental materials and energy, the planning of space, and the 
elimination of war and other forms of waste. These all call for an 
ecological understanding beyond that now possessed by engineers, 
and leaders in finance, industry, and politics. 
Since increasing numbers are exposed to courses in biology in high 
school or college or both, it seems quite possible that the emphasis of 
these courses should be reviewed, to insure a proper presentation of 
important ecological principles. It is all very well to learn about 
anatomy and physiology in plants, animals, and man. But no one 
would expect, for example, to deal through a knowledge of mechanics 
alone with the many public problems raised by the automobile. In- 
deed, viewing the extravagant missilelike design and immense waste 
power of the modern automobile, I wonder whether automotive engi- 
neering couldn’t do with a little ecology of its own! 
In any event, a practical way to test some of these notions and to 
prepare us for considering man’s place in nature is to examine some 
of the more elementary findings of the ecologist. Doing so, we must 
keep in mind that his essential business is to study process, in particu- 
lar the process wherein life and environment interact. Obviously he 
must understand both living organisms and their environment—a task 
