22 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



in a social body, and preclude us from thinking of them by 

 themselves, or attributing them to special, rather than to 

 general, causes. It is, moreover, impossible not to notice 

 the connection beween such phenomena and the doctrines of 

 energetics. When only so much free energy is to be shared 

 among co-partners, its over-consumption by one implies 

 not only over-activity in one place, but starvation in 

 another, with a resulting loss of balance. 



Such particular consideration of certain unsolved 

 problems leads directly to an analysis of any organism as a 

 whole, and as interdependent parts. When taken as a 

 whole, it can once again be regarded as part of a wider, more 

 inclusive organism ; but to regard it on any plane as com- 

 posed of parts, forces upon us the fact that they exist in 

 symbiosis as separate cell states. Symbiosis is, however, 

 usually construed as mutual help, and this is only a partial 

 statement of the facts, unless the organism is static in 

 static circumstances, that is, unless it is perfectly " adapted " 

 to an unchanging environment. Such a condition is ideal 

 " anarchism," a state of affairs in which each unit functions 

 freely according to its nature, and in no way interferes with 

 other units, since it lacks any qualities, or secretions, which 

 exercise irritating or depressing functions on its neighbours. 

 Such a form of life, while ideally possible, has probably 

 never been attained, and ordinary symbiotic equilibrium is 

 only reached practically in organisms of which the parts are 

 not only helpful among each other, but are actually ' ' hostile ' ' 

 in other ways. The use of the word " hostile " is, of 

 course, no more than verbal shorthand to express the fact 

 that each part has its own work, and in many cases its own 

 frontiers, or limiting membrane. This is a rough state- 

 ment of the biological conception of any organism, and we 

 can only conceive equilibrium in such a symbiotic com- 



