250 The Unity of the Organism 



Four Certainties About the Adaptiveness of Subrational 

 Psychic Activities 



Concerning the purposefulness or adaptiveness of activi- 

 ties of this general type, I think four things may be re- 

 garded as absolutely certain. 



Generally Useful to Individual and to Species 



First, a vast majority of them are recognizably contribu- 

 tory to the perpetuity of both the individual in its normal 

 life, and of the species. But for them neither individual 

 nor species would continue to exist. This is so obvious that 

 further remark upon it is unnecessary. 



Many Useful to Species Primarily 



Second, in a large number of instances particular acts 

 by particular individuals are in the interest of the species 

 primarily and of the individuals only secondarily or not at 

 all. This is shown most conclusively in cases like that of 

 several species of salmon, where the individual normally goes 

 through activities which secure the continuance of the spe- 

 cies but which end in the death of the individual. A large 

 and varied number of cases of this type occur, especially 

 among insects. But the supremacy of species over individ- 

 ual needs appears under various other forms. Thus almost 

 certainly such tropistic activities as that of the moth going 

 to its death or injury in the flame is of this sort. This 

 case may be stated in general terms thus: Owing to lack 

 of any ability on the part of an individual to modify its in- 

 herited mode of action to meet a special situation, it acts in 

 the old way even though the new situation, while in gen- 

 eral like the old, yet differs from it enough to make it peril- 

 ous to the individual if it acts unmodifiedly in the old racial 



