264 SYMBIOGENESIS 



Spencer here again concedes that " groups of compound 

 units have a certain power of moulding adjacent fit materials 

 into units of their own form," i.e., that they have a certain 

 creative or individualising power, i.e., they possess incipient 

 personality. These groups of compound units, "capable of 

 resuming their structural integrity after they have been wasted 

 by function," indeed suggest the analogy of human 

 personality. We have previously seen that similar considera- 

 tions caused Spencer to incline to Schelling's definition of Life 

 as "the tendency to individuation," and his renewed 

 difficulties in trying to square these individual "powers" of 

 units with his mechanical First Principles rather emphasises 

 again the superiority of Schelling's definition of Life to his 

 own. 



As regards that other kind of repair which shows itself in 

 the regeneration of lost members, Spencer thinks that we have 

 no alternative but to conclude that the aggregate forces of the 

 body control the formative processes going on in each part, 

 which, I would note, again seems to point to some kind of 

 central or regulating principle of individuality in the 

 organism. 



Recent pathological study appears to lead in the same 

 direction. Thus Dr. Bashford says, in reference to cancer, 

 that " the physiological balance, with self-regulation perfect 

 on normal days, is thrown out of adjustment." (Recovery, 

 i.e., restoration or "regeneration" of lost integrity, in this 

 case, is rare.) 



Spencer's hypothesis that a plant or animal of any species 

 is made up of special units, in all of which there dwells the 

 intrinsic aptitude to aggregate into the form of that species, 

 is based on the famous and much-quoted example of a frag- 

 ment of a Begonia leaf imbedded in fit soil developing into a 

 young Begonia. 



But, as Mr. H. C. Davidson has shown, this "asexual" 

 reproduction really depends on the presence of buds, i.e., 

 plantagens, i.e., specially differentiated and individualised 

 entities (members of a symbiotic union) ; and the significance 



