Bionomics. 185 



Chapter XIV. 

 Bionomics. 



The Term Bionomics History of Bionomics Fritz Miiller as a Type- 

 Organisms and their Environment Adaptations Sprengel Nu- 

 tritive Chains Inter-relations between Plants and Animals Inter- 

 relations among Animals Inter-relations among Plants The 

 Struggle for Existence. 



When we think of the life of a man, our first thoughts 

 are usually of his active relations with the world around 

 him, of his family and friends, of his en- The Term 

 deavours and achievements; and it is in Bionomics, 

 most cases only as a second thought that we inquire 

 into the functioning of his heart or digestive organs. 

 For it seems convenient, if not logical, to distinguish 

 between the internal activities of the body and the 

 wider life in which the man comes into active relations 

 with his fellows, with other living creatures, and with 

 the inanimate world. 



So it is with the life of plants and animals. There 

 is the internal life of the body, and there is the wider 

 external life of inter-relations with other individuals 

 and with the world. For the study of this wider life 

 a term is needed, and various suggestions have been 

 made. 



Professor E. Ray Lankester, in his article " Zoology " 

 in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, proposed the term 

 Bionomics, defining it as "the lore of the farmer, 

 gardener, sportsman, fancier, and field-naturalist, in- 

 cluding Thremmatology, or the science of breeding, and 

 the allied Teleology, or science of organic adaptation: 

 exemplified by the patriarch Jacob, the poet Virgil, 

 Sprengel, Kirby and Spence, Wallace, and Darwin ". 



It has been said that Bionomics is merely a learned 

 word for "natural history", but this has already a 

 heavy burden to bear; it has been translated "life- 

 history ", but this has a more definite meaning already; 

 it has been called "higher-physiology", but this, 



