MEANING OF REFRODUCTION _ 13 



that the food must be absorbed through surfaces, and it is 

 a volume that is to be nourished. We may say that 

 organisms must stop growing near the point where 

 absorption and nutrition are balanced. It may be, when 

 this condition of balance begins to be felt by a growing 

 organism, that this very condition stimulates it to 

 reproduce. This stimulus would be a real cause. In this 

 way the growing power which is lost in the parent is 

 renewed in the offspring, v/hich thus takes onward the 

 torch of life. 



5. What is the Meaning of This? Putting together 

 these two processes, upbuilding and reproduction, we 

 have an organism first building itself up in a selfish way 

 through taking in of food and through growth; then, 

 because of this very growth, unselfishly giving a portion 

 of itself to start a new individual life. The student must 

 understand that it is not intended, by the use of the words 

 selfish and unselfish, that the organisms are conscious of 

 these tendencies or that they have any moral meaning. 

 They relate merely to the fact that one tendency and 

 process builds up the self; the other builds up another 

 individual and does it at the expense of the self. 

 Nutrition tends to make the individual continue; but 

 the individual does not live always by this selfish act. 

 We have seen that it aKvays dies. Reproduction is at the 

 expense of this individual, and frequently results in the 

 immediate destruction of the individual; but it starts a 

 new life and thus perpetuates the species. It is interesting 

 that the selfish act has a transient result, while the 

 unselfish act means permanence and continuance of life. 



One of the great truths of life then is this: The best 

 method thus far found in nature to perpetuate life is an 

 alternation of self-building and self-sacrifice, of assimila- 

 tion and reproduction, of emphasis on the individual and 

 emphasis on the species. This alternation is found in 

 practically all organisms. It must be a good thing! 



