October 



o> 



1914] 



NATURE 



169 



it is often fatal. As Goethe said, Nature holds 

 that for the pains of a lifetime it is fair payment 

 to get a couple of draughts from the cup of love. 

 But many animals have not even this, or the 

 psychic reward of seeing the offspring for the 

 good of which the}- more or less unwittingly spend 

 themselves. 



The author illustrates the physiological cost of 

 producing germ-cells, of nourishing the young 

 before or after birth, of parturition, and so on. 

 -Many females die of reproduction, and the drone- 

 bees are far from being the only males that are 

 sacrificed on the altar of sex. Many animals, 

 notably insects, spend a very large proportion of 

 their energy in securing the safety of the eggs 

 and the nourishment of the young. In a charming 

 way the author reminds us, in reference to birds, 

 of the work of nest-making, the patience of brood- 

 ing, the self-forgetfulness exhibited in feeding, 

 cleaning, guarding, and educating the young. 

 For social insects the formula is suggested : 

 " Everything for the species ; everything by the in- 

 dividual ; nothing for the individual." 



What difficulties often lie in the way of the 

 fertilisation of the egg-cell ! How much time, 

 . experimenting, vital energy, and elimination has 

 ^one to the establishment of the structural adapta- 

 tions, the impelling desires, and _the subtler 

 psychical devices which secure this end. There 

 are parallel adaptations of body, emotion, instinct, 

 and intelligence, which secure the welfare of the 

 young. The author has done very valuable service 

 in bringing into prominence the amount of energ\' 

 ^expended towards the maintenance of the species 

 rather than towards self-preservation and self- 

 gratification. Animals have become interested 

 organically, if not consciously, in working for the 

 species ; they do not know it, but their personality 

 completes itself in the larger life of their race. 

 jThey may sometimes work under an illusion, but 

 many are enriched and many are pleased ; they do 

 not wholly lose their reward. Metaphors apart, 

 variations (probably altogether germinal to begin 

 with), in directions which made for the welfare 

 of offspring, family, society, or species, have been 

 established in the course of selection no less 

 securely than those which made for self-preserva- 

 tion. Metaphors again, this has been Nature's 

 way of setting the seal of her approval on 

 altruistic behaviour, even when the animal's left 

 hand certainly does not know what its right 

 hand doeth. 



(4) Sir Bampfylde Fuller's well-written and 

 wholesome book is divided into three parts — rthe 

 attributes of life ; the constraining influences of 

 race, environment and culture; and man's achieve- 

 ments, material, intellectual, and social. Though 

 XO. 2346, VOL. 94] 



the most valuable part of the book is probably the 

 third, which gives expression to the author's ex- 

 perience as an administrator, we must restrict 

 ourselves here to the more strictly biological dis- 

 cussion. 



What life in essence is we do not know; we 

 must make the same confession in regard to elec- 

 tricity and gravity ; but we cannot suppose that 

 life is the result of matter. We must judge of 

 life by its manifestations. Thus changefulness is 

 one — the flux of everyday metabolism, the cyclical 

 development of the individual, the prodigal varia- 

 bility which evolution implies. Another preroga- 

 tive is effectively responsive sensitiveness, differ- 

 ing from that of a photographic plate in being 

 associated with a more or less clear "awareness." 

 The other attributes on which the author lays 

 emphasis are instinct and consciousness, spon- 

 taneity and repetitiveness. We do not think that 

 he states the attributes very clearly, but no two 

 people agree about this, and it is perhaps more 

 important that he writes in a fresh and interesting 

 way about them from a frankly vitalistic p>oint of 

 view. Living creatures are better defined by their 

 impulses than by their organs. "We do not see 

 because we have ej-es, but we have ej^es because 

 we have an impulse to see." Life is not a series 

 of activities produced by a particular type of 

 substance or machinery, but may be better 

 thought ot as a complicated energy of (it may be 

 figured) " interlacing whirls which animates the 

 mecnanism of the body, and is not caused by it." 

 The author shows no wavering in his conviction 

 that life transcends mechanism. 



(5) Dr. Mottram thinks that he has got hold 

 of a new theory, supplementary to Darwinism. 

 He illustrates it with enthusiasm and with a 

 pleasant frankness, most of his test cases being 

 taken from birds. The theory is that of con- 

 trolled Natural Selection, which seems to mean 

 this : — The variations presented to the sieve of 

 Natural Selection are not all of the same value 

 for the welfare of the species; thus variations in 

 males are not so important as variations in 

 females, for males are less valuable than 

 females; and one set of variations is more liable 

 to be selected than another, challenging criticism 

 more, as it were. Thus what Natural Selection 

 effects is in a sense "controlled " by the nature 

 or value of the variations that are forthcoming. 

 What truth is there in this? If we compare the 

 action of Natural Selection to that of a pruning 

 knife, and liken variations to the new growths of 

 a tree, we may say that the final result is a 

 function of the growth on the one hand and the 

 pruning on the other. But the phrase " controlled 

 selection " is surely misleading. Then again, as 



