244 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



this has led to much artificiality of surroundings and 

 functions, of food and drink. His nurture has become 

 extraordinarily subtle and divergent from that of animals. 

 Thus his body is exposed to multitudinous assaults from 

 without and from within which have to be met, and 

 are not always met successfully. It must be understood 

 that some bodily disturbances, such as inflammation, 

 which are popularly ranked under the heading of disease, 

 represent the body's best endeavour to deal with intrud- 

 ing microbes, irritants, or poisons. 



(3) Intelligence and instinct are usually developed in 

 inverse ratio. The ant with its rich endowment of 

 inborn capacities for instinctive behaviour does not 

 seem to have much intelligence. Man with his rich 

 endowment of intelligence has relatively few instincts, 

 and these are mostly of a generahsed type. Thus he 

 is peculiarly liable to stumble. He has, for instance, 

 very little resting instinct, very httle awareness of when 

 he is overtaxing his strength. It is intelligently rather 

 than instinctively that he has come to understand that 

 insomnia and pain are danger-signals. Human instincts 

 in regard to sex are very vague. 



(4) But perhaps the biggest reason of all is what 

 is often called " the dilemma of civilisation." In a 

 magnificent way Man has rebelled against Nature's 

 regime ; but it must be admitted that he has not yet 

 substituted for Natural Selection an adequately effective 

 rational and social selection. Thus an opportunity is 

 ofiered for deterioration and disintegration. Hence the 

 dilemma of civilisation so well stated by Herbert Spen- 



