208 SYMBIOSIS 



by an animal not, however, on the principle of the true agri- 

 culturist, but rather on that of the ruthless robber. All animals, 

 of course, may be said to make encroachments upon plant life, 



but it is plain that there must be well-defined limits, and> 



* 



undoubtedly, in Evolution it is the little more or the little less that 

 counts, particularly in matters of this kind. Given a pronounced 

 predatory habit, it cannot be wondered at that the species became 

 affected by a steadily increasing degree of Acromegaly until 

 finally the whole otherwise long-lived genus became affected by 

 a fatal pitch of " Gigantisme." With the growth of the habit 

 of depredation, the upper incisors increased from one geological 

 period to another, whilst the lower incisors decreased and 

 atrophied a form of antithesis usually arising from a perverted 

 f/w ratio. The two 



incisives superieures s'allongent considerablement en deux pieux tout droits,. 

 sans qu'a la verite, on en puisse entrevoir 1'usage ou la raison 1 Enfin 

 chez Mastodon Americanus (Pleistocene), 1'atrophie des incisives inferieures 

 est devenu complete : il n'en reste plus que deux chicots rudimentaires. 

 Par centre la dystrophie dentaire se depense fortement sur les incisives 

 superieures qui s'hypertrophient consid6rablement et deviennent, comme 

 chez les Elephants, les defenses monstrueuses, encombrantes et, parfaite 

 ment inutiles que nous connaissons a ces derniers. 



More pertinently still from our point of view we learn : 



Seuls, parmi les Proboscidiens, le Rameau des Dinotherium a conserve 

 jusqu'au bout des defenses dont le role fonctionnel apparait clairement. 

 On devine, en effet, sans la moindre hesitation possible, 1'usage de cette 

 pioche naturelle a deux fortes dents recourbtes, qu'elles representent ; non. 

 moins qu'on discerne facilement celui du double soc et du double coutre de 

 PalcBomastodon. C'est que chez Dinotherium, de meme que chez Palceo- 

 mastodon, les " defenses," soi-disant, sont bien eVidemment des outils et 

 non pas des armes. Et c'est par un veritable abus de termes qu'on 

 a appele ces appareils dentaires des " d6fenses." A moins de qualifier 

 " armes " la pioche et la charrue du pacifique cultivateur ! 



In his ardour to defeat the " Biologist es-normaux," the author 

 goes so far as to confound the destructive instruments of the 

 plant-carnivore with the pious implements of the agriculturist. 

 But, if the " instruments " are not " arms," they are not agri- 

 cultural implements either. At least they have ceased to be 

 such and now belong to the arsenal of robbery. Here, as elsewhere, 

 the robbers' instruments are but " variations " of once truly 

 useful utensils. In a Darwinian sense they have remained useful 

 all along, but this can no longer be said on a duly sociological view 

 of the matter, supported as this is by Comparative Pathology. 



ne 



