AIM, CONTENT, AND POINT OF VIEW 7 



as does all life, gains permanence by means of trans- 

 mission. Science possesses, as yet, no word by 

 which such a community of living beings may be des- 

 ignated ; no word for a community where the sum 

 of species and individuals, beings mutually limited 

 and selected under the average external conditions 

 of life, have, by means of transmission, continued 

 in possession of a certain definite territory. I 

 propose the word Biocoenosis l for such a community. 

 Any change in any of the relative factors of a bioco- 

 nose produces changes in other factors of the same. 

 If, at any time, one of the external conditions of life 

 should deviate for a long time from its ordinary 

 mean, the entire bioconose, or community, would be 

 transformed. It would also be transformed, if the 

 number of individuals of a particular species increased 

 or diminished through the instrumentality of man, or 

 if one species entirely disappeared from, or a new spe- 

 cies entered into, the community." (See Figure 1). 

 The three methods of approach to ecological 

 study are not so distinct as they appear at first 

 thought. With perfecting knowledge the network of 

 interrelations increases and the paths converge. Then 

 also the study of the individual behavior of "social" 

 animals, as ants, white ants, bees, or birds which 

 live and breed in colonies, shows transitional stages 

 from the individual unit to that of the family, the 

 colony, and on to the association. Yet the advantage 

 of each point of view should be recognized as an aid 

 in the analysis and synthesis of any problem. 



1 From ptos, life, and Koivtteiv, to have something in common. 



