FITNESS AND ADAPTATION 71 



tion of reproduction, life automatically returns to a 

 more primitive, or a more economic level. 



VI. The Measure of Social Fitness 



We can readily imagine a kind of human society in 

 which the basic principle of the orchid's invention is 

 fully utilized. Let us picture to ourselves how it might 

 work out. In such a society, over the gateway to his 

 domicile, the advertising lover displays his erotic sym- 

 bols, and from his windows discharges alluring and sug- 

 gestive perfumes. Wafted up the community avenues, 

 conveyed by servant light and air, his missiles cross 

 the pathway of some official receptive agent called, let 

 us say, a guardian of the peace. In most human com- 

 munities this constituent normally has a positive reac- 

 tion to such stimuli. That is, he automatically orients 

 himself to their line of propagation, and, with unerring 

 instinct, follows their sensuous trails to their source. 

 So it is in this case. Passing under the gateway, still 

 led by servant eye and nose, he enters the lover's cham- 

 ber. Overcome by the splendor of his surroundings, 

 he is temporarily diverted from his purpose and pauses 

 a moment to survey the repast, expressly fitted, appar- 

 ently, for himself. In making a preliminary exami- 

 nation of the nectars set before him, he inadvertently 

 presses a concealed button, which automatically regu- 

 lates the movements of a trap door beneath the spot 

 where the investigations must necessarily take place. 



As the inclination of the trap door quickly changes 

 in response to the pressure on the button, the investi- 

 gator, moved by a stronger will than his own, falls into 

 a refreshing bath. Here, one of the chief purposes of 



