BIO-DYNAMICS 95 



mammal (in virtue of suckling and feeding by the parents) 

 obtains a further large mass at but little cost to itself." 



But if, according to Spencer, the size ultimately attained 

 by an organism is frequently determined by the initial size, he 

 is not oblivious of the fact that there must exist a certain 

 dependence of growth on organisation. In plants, for instance, 

 " we see that for the attainment of great bulk there is required 

 such a degree of organisation as shall co-ordinate the functions 

 of roots and branches we see that such a size as is reached by 

 trees is not possible without an efficient vascular system 

 enabling the remote organs to utilise each other's products." 

 (Italics mine.) 



I have already referred to the need of a permanent 

 increase of vascularity in the progressive evolution of plants 

 and to its association with "work." 



With all his comprehensiveness, Spencer here again con- 

 tents himself with too statical a view, although, as usual, 

 much more may be gleaned from his illustrations. Clearly the 

 very provision of an initial outlay which subsequently proves 

 so important for individual growth is primarily a matter of 

 function and depending in particular for its bio-chemical 

 adequacy on the general degree of productiveness of the 

 particular species. The great and universal necessity of all 

 organisms to be passed through the unicellular condition to 

 partake of the beneficence of the fertilisation process is 

 attended by the simultaneous requirement of all organisms to 

 provide from their own flesh and blood the embryonic nutri- 

 tion, qualitatively as well as quantitatively, and the general 

 embryonic equipment of their progeny, and thus to determine 

 by means of transmitted biological values the life of the latter 

 to a large degree. There is no shirking in these matters, and 

 every pronounced physiological deficiency emanating from a 

 lapse of work is thus bound to be communicated to the germ. 

 " I will visit upon you the sins of your fathers unto the third 

 and fourth generation." It is quality, moreover, that is 

 normally required rather than quantity. Wherever the 



