24 SYMBIOSIS 



also laid upon the fact that the special adaptations characteristic 

 of Symbiosis are for the most part ultimately connected with 

 Nutrition, which seemed to open up new vistas of thought for a 

 consideration of this very matter of Nutrition hitherto a 

 veritable Cinderella of Science. 



I have stated that Symbiosis was primarily economic, and, 

 seeing that the economic problem is as ancient as Life itself, 

 one cannot be surprised to find that it was a major concern 

 of Life to bring Nutrition under early, socio-physiological 

 regularisation. 



And this is saying in other words that the principle of 

 organic self-preservation indispensably demanded that the norm 

 of food getting and of metabolism should accord with co- 

 operative bio-economic laws as opposed to indiscriminate or 

 predatory ways of appropriation which by their lawlessness 

 would have continually endangered the very basis of existence. 



My thesis is that food is effective and legitimate in an evolu- 

 tionary sense that is in the sense of aiding the progress of 

 organic civilisation precisely in so far as it is obtained by 

 honest toil and put to symbiotic use. In the previous chapter 

 it was pointed out that only " right " use, " right " union, and 

 " right " appetency (endeavour perpetuated and imperceptibly 

 working in effect through an incalculable series of generations) 

 could have produced evolution in the direction of organic 

 civilisation. In the present chapter it is " right feeding " that is 

 to be particularly insisted upon as an essential condition of 

 progress. I would urge that it is with Nutrition as with 

 Fertilisation ; neither in fact subserves merely the multiplication 

 of individuals, mere " re-production " ; but also, and in the 

 result more fundamentally, the exaltation of type. 



As the norm of life, every organism in its development must 

 be passed through the unicellular stage. The fusion of two 

 germ-cells does not result simply in the birth of a new individual, 

 but starts that individual with increased elan vital, with increased 

 symbiotic supports. The essence of Fertilisation is thus seen 

 to consist in the raising of the level of being through amphimixis 

 (mingling and mutual stimulation of parental qualities), or, 

 in other words, the sexual form of Symbiogenesis. I believe 

 that something similar is purported by Nutrition, which equally 

 involves protoplasmic union with previous " maturation," 

 previous Symbiosis and subsequent elevation of type, as we shall 



