34 SYMBLOGENES1S 



passu with its external (bio-economic) co-operativeness. That 

 the composing parts cease to work together as they used to do 

 soon becomes obvious ; what is less conspicuous, and therefore 

 generally overlooked, is the simultaneous snapping of the 

 external the bio-economic bond. We cannot be surprised to 

 find that in conditions of surfeit the component parts of an 

 organism be they plantagens or other quasi-individuals 

 (organs) lack the stimulus for work, both physiological and 

 biological. 



Surfeit and " rich food " thus stimulate in the patho- 

 logical direction. They are the very conditions and causes of 

 parasitism, just as luxury brings social degeneration and care- 

 lessness about national welfare. It is notoriously hard " to 

 argue with stomachs that have no ears." The consequence is 

 that the system as a whole cannot attain to a high position. 

 Noblesse oblige, both physiologically and biologically, as we 

 have seen in the case of the flower-buds. Inflation is the curse 

 of a commonwealth, and a return to sobriety its cure. This, 

 then, is the required explanation of the common cause which 

 produces these similar effects. 



Here, with a certain general resemblance, Mr. Davidson 

 notes a difference. Whilst as the result of surfeit (or condi- 

 tions equivalent to surfeit) the buds unable to attain to pure 

 sexuality under such obstructing conditions detrimental to 

 co-operation increase (asexually) in numbers, caterpillars 

 increase in size. But, suggests Mr. Davidson, this is so only 

 because the butterfly and the moth families propagate only 

 sexually, and as soon as we go to families of a lower order 

 which propagate asexually as well as sexually, the resemblance 

 between insect and plantagen again becomes very close. As an 

 illustration he gives the rose-aphis. 



As this case is of the utmost importance to my bio- 

 economic thesis, and as, moreover, it bears resemblances to the 

 behaviour of the Convoluta that we are here considering. I 

 hope that a somewhat lengthy quotation will not be considered 

 unwarranted. We are told: 



