394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
inoursystem. But much moreso do we manifest this attitude toward 
the “underdeveloped” and “underprivileged” of other lands. Perhaps 
they do not feel sorry for themselves until we suggest that they should. 
But whatever their needs, the doctor ought write no prescription until 
he has seen and understood the patient. 
We now have more than a hint that any culture with its system of 
behavior and sanctions (ultimately expressed in esthetic forms) can 
be viewed as a dynamic process moving toward reduction of internal 
strain and external stress. To the extent that this is true it exemplifies 
the universal trend of process in the inorganic and organic realms. 
But while inorganic systems of matter and energy tend toward repose, 
those that involve life exhibit a countertendency so long as energy is 
available to keep them going. For, through the action of plants in 
storing solar energy, they have developed a peculiar pattern of flow 
and transformation—a kind of postponed benefit approximating what 
is known as a “steady state.” 
This amounts to a situation in which solar energy is fixed into or- 
ganic compounds instead of being immediately dissipated as heat and 
so becoming “bound,” that is, unavailable for further work under ex- 
isting conditions. Bound energy is somewhat analogous to water that 
has fallen from a high level to such a low one that no further fall is 
possible. The phenomenon is expressed by saying that the entropy of 
our system—earth-sun—is increasing as energy flows from the sun’s 
high intensity to the earth’s low. Except as energy is intercepted and 
stored in such a way that it can be made to do work, it becomes bound. 
It may be intercepted by the evaporation of water into the atmos- 
phere or the creation of atmospheric high-pressure areas. But when 
the water gets back to sea level and winds have blown themselves out, 
such energy becomes bound at last. 
By comparison, energy impinging on living communities and stored 
in carbon compounds sustains a variety of forms of life, promoting 
their individual and group organization, enhancing the capacity of 
the habitat to sustain life, regulating the economy of water movement 
and chemical transformations—in short, doing work but maintaining 
the system at a high level of efficiency at the same time. It suggests 
an industrial plant plowing back income into maintenance. 
Although animals, including man, are consumers of energy-bearing 
carbon compounds, they can contribute to maintaining the balance of 
the system so long as they do not disrupt it. Insects pollinate plants 
and many animals disseminate them. Mineral nutrients are dis- 
tributed, as for example when hordes of salmon bring scarce nutrient 
salts from the sea inland when they come up to spawn in regions that, 
