xii INTRODUCTION 



I have heard it said that the Physiologist should refer all 

 phenomena of life, as far as possible, to the laws of Physics and 

 Chemistry. I should say that it is more than probable, however, 

 that even this laudable pursuit will ultimately yield nothing 

 more startling than the truth which I have endeavoured to 

 formulate in socio-physiological language. The most important 

 constitutional law of the universe, according to Symbiosis, may 

 be stated in more general terms thus : A body should possess 

 all that is necessary, but no more. Any superfluity acts as an 

 impediment apt to cause disease inasmuch as it militates against 

 usefulness in Symbiosis. And this would also apply in exactly 

 the same way in the physical world. A body needs to be pure and 

 austerely constituted lest it lose resistance pari passii with 

 (cosmic) usefulness. 



Some parts of the book are, I am aware, somewhat technical 

 in treatment ; but this was unavoidable in view of my main 

 purpose which was to rescue Symbiosis from " scientific," i.e., 

 specialists' depreciation, and this necessarily required some 

 detailed exposition of my views and the evidence which has le 

 me to adopt them. Further, if my thesis with regard to the 

 extinction of species being ultimately due to a divorce from 

 Symbiosis, was to carry conviction to the professional Biologist 

 it had to be supported by some detailed palaeontological and 

 pathological evidence, which again indispensably entailed the 

 consideration of some technical matters. 





