104 THE DATA OF BIOLOGY, 



that the life is great in proportion as the correspondence is 

 great. For if the lengthened existence of a tree be looked 

 upon as tantamount to a considerable amount of life; then 

 it must be admitted that its lengthened display of corre- 

 spondence is tantamount to a considerable amount of corre- 

 spondence. If, otherwise, it be held that notwithstanding its 

 much shorter existence, a dog must rank above a tortoise in 

 degree of life because of its superior activity; then it is 

 implied that its life is higher because its simultaneous and 

 successive changes are more complex and more rapid — be- 

 cause the correspondence is greater. And since we regard 

 as the highest life that which, like our own, shows great 

 complexity in the correspondences, great rapidity in the suc- 

 cession of them, and great length in the series of them; the 

 equivalence between degree of life and degree of correspond- 

 ence is unquestionable. 



§ 33. In further elucidation of this general truth, and 

 especially in explanation of the irregularities just referred to, 

 it must be pointed out that as the life becomes higher the 

 environment itself becomes more complex. Though, literally, 

 the environment means all surrounding space with the co- 

 existences and sequences contained in it : yet, practically, it 

 often means but a small part of this. The environment of 

 an entozoon can scarcely be said to extend beyond the body 

 of the animal in which the entozoon lives. That of a fresh- 

 water alga is virtually limited to the ditch inhabited by the 

 alga. And, understanding the term in this restricted sense, 

 we shall see that the superior organisms inhabit the more 

 complicated environments. 



Thus, contrasted with the life found on land, the lower 

 life is that found in the sea; and it has the simpler environ- 

 ment. Marine creatures are affected by fewer co-existences 

 and sequences than terrestrial ones. Being very nearly of 

 the same specific gravity as the surrounding medium, they 

 have to contend with less various mechanical actions. 



