134 SYMBIOSIS 



manufacture the essential nitrogenous compounds " necessary for the 

 production of protoplasm by utilising the free nitrogen of the air." (Italics 

 mine.) 



Bacillus radicola (says Prof. Farmer), is one of the very few organisms 

 capable of performing the really stupendous task of forcing the very inert 

 element nitrogen into combinations, provided that it is supplied with the 

 means of obtaining the energy required for the process in the form of appro- 

 priate carbohydrate nutrition. (Italics mine.) 



All of which provides an account of genuine work and industry, 

 of mutual effort, mutual stimulation, and mutual elevation 

 of a desirable kind the very opposite of what is ascribable to 

 Parasitism. Obviously " Capital " and " Labour " have here 

 found a fairly satisfactory modus vivendi having regard more- 

 over to the existing inequalities of status. 



We are told that the Leguminosae have by no means abandoned 

 the absorption of nitrates from the soil. They are far from 

 showing symptoms of degeneration. It even becomes almost 

 unthinkable, according to Prof. Farmer, that degeneration of 

 leaf structure could occur, 



inasmuch as the continuous supply of carbohydrates from the green 

 parts is a prime condition of the nitrogen synthesis. 



The importance to the organic world of these plants which bring 

 nitrogen into combination (Prof. Farmer continues) in a form that can 

 be utilised by living beings is overwhelming. For apart from some means 

 of maintaining the supplies of nitrogenous food, life itself would ultimately 

 cease to be possible in the world. 



The interests of the " associates," as of the world at large, 

 therefore, make it imperative that essential industries shall not 

 be interfered with to any large extent. The industries of the 

 bacillus and of the plant are inter-dependent in the building up 

 from the raw materials of " the stuff from which protoplasm itself 

 can be made." That is to say, that protoplasm itself owes its 

 existence and maintenance to Symbiosis. The object of Para- 

 sitism is to obtain supplies of protoplasm by stealth and murder 

 instead of honest toil, and thus it is really countervailing the 

 central industry of life and constituting the opposite pole to 

 Symbiosis. 



Again, when Prof. Farmer, speaking of what he conceives to 

 be true Symbiosis, namely, in the case of the lichen, tells us : 



The symbiosis only continues to pay as long as the alga is properly 

 exposed to light, and for so long as it is properly supplied with water, 

 together with the small amount of mineral food it requires 

 (the latter offices being largely discharged by the fungus), this 



