A LIMB FOR A LIFE 173 



to autophagy as the hermit-crab exhibits seem to 

 us to corroborate our suggestion that we must not 

 conclude from the simplicity of a present-day reflex 

 that the process has evolved without any factor 

 of awareness. 



What is the evolutionist's finding provisional, 

 of course in regard to the problem of autotomy? 

 Perhaps this: (i) that a capacity for breakage is 

 very widespread among the less integrated lower 

 animals; (2) that it may have to do with increase 

 in size beyond the limits of nervous control, or 

 with an inequality in the intensity of metabolic 

 processes in different parts of the body; (3) that the 

 giving off of parts may be useful as a mode of 

 vegetative multiplication; as a means of getting rid 

 of an aged, injured, or parasitized portion; and as a 

 way of escaping from enemies; and (4) that it has 

 come to be associated with a subsequent regenera- 

 tion of what has been surrendered. Given these 

 materials, so to speak, and plenty of time and sift- 

 ing, the organism can perhaps work out structural 

 elaborations as finished as those in the crab. But it 

 is at least a tenable theory that the organism is a 

 purposive individuality as well as a co-ordination 

 of chemical reactions taking place in a colloid 

 substratum, and that from time to time the factor 

 of endeavor and the will to live has entered into 

 the evolutionary process with varied degrees of 

 self -awareness. It is conceivable also that what in 

 some cases required to begin with it may have been 

 for a million years genuine behavior, the con- 



