30 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



tion, seem far-fetched to declare that the phenomena of 

 zoological and political symbiosis are intimately related, 

 and alike biological. Even in the healthy there is always 

 armed neutrality of tissues, and at any time there may come 

 a breakdown leading to warfare in the human body. Such 

 a conception helps us to see that, whatever the waste in 

 material, the methods by which life is built up, from 

 the apparently simple amoeba to the hugest empire, 

 are marvellously economical — so economical, indeed, 

 as to suggest that life could be constructed only in 

 one way. 



Whether such views are regarded as commonplaces or 

 extravagances every political student will recognize as 

 true the statement of fundamental inter-state hostility, 

 while every biologist or physiologist knows that balance 

 between opposing forces in the organism is a sine qua non 

 of its existence. To such a degree is this carried in health, 

 that every definite organ now appears to rule and to be 

 ruled, to control and to be controlled. The regulators of 

 metabolism are also the regulators of growth, and all alike 

 appear conditioned by the chemical messengers of their 

 environment. This is known to be true of the ductless 

 glands, and as we learn more of their functions we may 

 presently infer that all glands, ductless or not, have several 

 functions, and go on to suspect that every portion of the 

 whole body influences every other part, either for good or 

 evil. What was help may become refusal of aid, and what 

 was due inhibition may exhibit itself as destructive. If 

 we carry these general views with us, and seek for light, 

 not only in the lesser laboratory, but in the great laboratory 

 of life all round us in which ceaseless experiment is carried 

 on, we may presently be able to infer from the theory of 

 hostile symbiosis the real nature of malignancy, and to 



