CHAPTER III. 



OBVERSE A PRIORI PRINCIPLE. 



324. WHEN dealing with its phenomena inductively, we 

 saw that however it may be carried on, Genesis " is a process 

 of negative or positive disintegration ; and is thus essentially 

 opposed to that process of integration which is the primary 

 process in individual evolution." ( 76.) Each new indivi- 

 dual, whether separated as a germ or in some more-developed 

 form, is a deduction from the mass of a pre-existing indivi- 

 dual or of two pre-existing individuals. Whatever nutritive 

 matter is stored up along with the germ, if it be deposited in 

 the shape of an egg, is so much nutritive matter lost to the 

 parent. No drop of blood can be absorbed by the foetus, nor 

 any draught of milk sucked by the young when born, without 

 taking from the mother tissue-forming and force-evolving 

 materials to an equivalent amount. And all subsequent sup- 

 plies given to progeny, if they are nurtured, involve, to a 

 parent or parents, so much waste in exertion which does not 

 bring its return in assimilated food. 



Conversely, the continued aggregation of materials into 

 one organism, renders impossible the formation of other or- 

 ganisms out of those materials. As much assimilated food 

 as is united into a single whole, is so much assimilated food 

 withheld from a plurality of wholes which might else have 

 been produced. Given the absorbed nutriment as a constant 

 quantity, and the longer the building of it up into a con- 

 crete shape goes on, the longer must be postponed any build- 

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