192 SYMBIOSIS 



eux, comme chez tous les races non degenerees, les plaies ne suppurenf 

 que peu ou point, tant est energique leur phagocytose, ainsi que je 1'ai deja 

 fait remarquer (Congres fran9ais de chirurgie, 1899). Par centre, chez 

 les degeneres, le pus se forme avec facilite et abondance et leur phagocytose 

 est tres affaiblie. On peut dire des lors que la faculte d* adaptation des Ndgres 

 est maxima et Ton comprend tres bien qu'elle leur ait permis de resister 

 a toutes les conditions defectueuses nouvelles resultant de leur trans- 

 plantation d'Afrique en Amerique. 



But whence the extraordinary vitality of the negroes ? Are 

 they a " race non degeneree " for no other reason than that they 

 are a " race inferieure " ? Surely this is not a very plausible 

 explanation, nor one worthy of a Physiologist or of a medical 

 man ! But the physiological cause of this vitality and the true 

 explanation of the contrast between Red Indians and negroes, 

 which Dr. Larger has entirely overlooked, I submit, are these : 

 the Red Indians are mostly in-feeders, hunters, warriors and 

 meat -eaters ; whilst the negroes, especially in their " pays 

 d'origine," are chiefly cross-feeders. In his work on Leprosy, 

 the late Sir Jonathan Hutchinson reports that the Zulus, the 

 physically finest race of African natives, live upon maize, millet 

 and the productions of their herds. They have a strong prejudice 

 against fish as food, and, as a rule, never eat it. Sir Jonathan 

 was told that no girl would marry a man who admitted that he 

 had been in the habit of eating fish. 



If Dr. Larger, as he says, has demonstrated, that the immunity 

 to disease on the part of the negroes depends upon their great 

 power of Phagocytosis, then he has in reality proved that this 

 power of resistance, this ability to depend upon biological support, 

 consists in Symbiosis, as previously defined by me. Phagocytosis 

 is but another word for internal or domestic Symbiosis, which, 

 as the example shows, largely depends upon appropriate feeding 

 habits, i.e,, above all, on cross-feeding. It is chiefly amongst 

 cross-feeders, again, that we find those remarkable powers of 

 adaptation dwelt upon by the author. Even in captivity this 

 is very noticeable. Thus, according to R. Lydekker, whilst the 

 little insectivorous bats, the flying-foxes of Australia (Pteropus 

 poliocephalus), like our own species, give some trouble to keep, 

 the big tropical fruit-bats are very easy subjects, and, in the 

 London Zoo, the African collared species (Cynonycteris collaris) 

 bred generation after generation in some cages in the Monkey 

 House years ago. 



We may say, therefore, that the physiological superiority of 



