300 THE BIOCOSMOS PARTICULARIZED. 



Life-world as to diet in its ascent to him- 

 self, with its three assimilations, the last one 

 being his own. Thus man already eats large- 

 ly pre-digested food; nature for millions of 

 years has been preparing his table, and so 

 to speak cooking his dinner of meat and veg- 

 etables. Man's nutriment is, therefore, the 

 result of asons of evolution; seemingly start- 

 ing from that first push out of the Inorganic 

 to the Organic. Also his organs of Assimil- 

 ation have been adjusted to his gradually 

 evolving diet, and have evolved in proportion. 

 Each human organ has, accordingly, its evo- 

 lution, which can often be traced backward 

 through the line of animals to the protozoon, 

 perchance even into the protophyte. In the 

 simple act of eating his meals, man partakes 

 of the total development of the living things 

 of this earth, he appropriates to himself a bit 

 of Life universal. 



It may be stated here that Assimilation as 

 now used, means the reproduction of the same 

 organism as already given and existent, not 

 the reproduction of another organism or a 

 new individual. The latter belongs to a dif- 

 ferent Process, that of Generation. The term 

 reproduction is often applied to both Pro- 

 cesses, the assimilative and the generative, 

 and must be employed with care to avoid am- 

 biguity. Still the thought of Life's repro- 



