1070 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [90]- 



hv Stealth or by taking aavantage. of fayotable euvironiDg conditions 

 can lie „se of such with but Uttle effort doubtless oft- -rpass the 

 strong in the race for survlTal ; but it must be borne n. mmd that this 

 only the practical expression of the doctrine of economy of effort or 

 that of '. least action," so that in a literal sense the degenerate oafers, 

 So d sucuTrs, and parasites of the organic world '-'^^^^^^ 

 as have availed themsWves of the favorable mdu -^ "^^^^ ^her 

 free or-anisms which have been "heroes m the strife" afforded them 

 This taSes in"o account the effect of intelligence in favonng the merely 

 ™al processes of evolution which lead to the morphological diffel- 



'ttryblZct^'that the views here put forth imply that the or- 

 ganism m"; be compared to a machine, and it may be well, once tor a^U 

 Tshow why such an opinion is untenable. Two reasons show that uoU 

 ,u l,™thesis is untrue: first, unlike any machine, an orgamsm repairs 

 itself and eco" V, unlike any machine, it first converts food int» 

 e' then d integrates part of itself in order that energy may be freed 

 t::";^ physiological or living actions There •> th-etor^ no ^^ 

 lelisui between the action of an engine of any sort and a living Bein„. 

 F^rher'no stimulus is capable of causing the liberation of energy from 

 Se con lonent parts of an engine or mechanism, -he.eas the mo e«^.ar 

 nstabiUty of living matter is so great that a great number of stimuli 

 l^^y induce the liberation of some of its matter and energy and thus set 

 thp ora-anism or some part of it a-moving. 



The ener-y of live n after and that of the environment being ma con- 

 stant sUte'of interplay and antagonism, it follows tl^»t there is con^ 

 tinual adjustment going on, as may be seen all round '^^ '" '^« *'_^"^^^^^ 

 we assume, as iu the act of respiration, for example, which is a common 

 Id flmir instance of these incessant processes « -^-'--'^3' J 

 is so important that these should continually proceed that it is hard to 

 e= 1 .eat this late date that more of us should not be -al^ « ^ .c-^_ 

 a paramount influence to such causes in t'>«/<"^«™;"f, ■°" f J t^^:; 

 form While the oxidation and decarbomzation of living matter seem 

 Ob the processes that lie at the bottom of the i-'t-^-ont of the move- 

 ments of animals, it is probably true that an organism once having 

 r.ched aTdi L of stable ad ustment retains its typical form, and is 

 h^ rendered more or less stable under uniform conditions as a spe- 

 ctes vc" all of us are aware to what extent a species may be variable. 

 The variations which we encounter in nature in the form of thebodies 

 of aSld their structures are in all cases to be "Himately traced 



to the effect of the environment in calling forth adjustments. The foi ms 

 f hfiXof the biixl, of the mammal, &c., are familiar exam^^^^^^^^^^ 



it is therefore manifestly vicious reasonmg, as PO'»te'io»t by Spencer 

 Darwin, and Parker, to look upon these t^es as a ^^^1 se>ies as a 

 proximately expressed in the older classiflcatious. On '^e oontrary, 

 they must nece sadly be divergent, and by just so much as they have 



