ORGANIC DEPENDENCE AND DISEASE 9 



portance for our purposes. It is this : That the entire body, 

 organism or creature and the entire race or stock to which 

 it belongs may become abnormal through subjection to an 

 abnormal or perturbed mode of life. Such body, creature, 

 race or stock is therefore in a state of disease. 



This condition has so frequently entered upon the life 

 modes of the animals and plants as to form an essential 

 basis of their classification and it is the mightiest single 

 influence in the separation of them into grades of excel- 

 lence. We hesitate to call such animals and such entire 

 races of animals and plants "diseased," but their mode of 

 life is obviously disordered and we have no choice but to 

 term it abnormal and consequent upon a "perturbation of 

 normal activities." Illustrations of this will presently be 

 given. 



WHAT IS NORMAL LIVING? 



With the help of the light drawn from a study of the 

 early faunas of the earth, that is, the assemblages of ani- 

 mals which were the first to people the salt waters of the 

 ocean, we can find an answer to this question which I think 

 would hardly be fully possible from the study of existing 

 animals alone. Normal living, in the broad sense in which 

 we desire to be understood, means full activity of an un- 

 impaired physiology inclusive of the function of locomotion 

 or mobility. This is not a very complete definition as it 

 leaves out of consideration the primitive development of 

 the locomotive function, which must have worked itself out 

 gradually just as other organs have developed in response 

 to the demands for their functions. Except for that, the 

 definition does very well, and it implies that normal living 

 means independent living; it means that every creature 

 which is in itself a perfect physiological mechanism and 

 has in itself the essential basis of progress in grade, in 

 which lies any "hope of salvation," must maintain to ma- 



