PARENTS AND OFFSPRING 109 



plants, some sharks, some snakes, and all the mammals 

 with a few exceptions. Special protection may be 

 furnished the young after hatching, as by the coats of 

 seeds, and by active efforts, as in many of the higher 

 animals. Birds capture food for their young, and the 

 mammals secrete it in the form of milk. Special education 

 of the young through imitation and other faculties is seen 

 in birds and many mammals. 



It is not our purpose to dwell at length on the different 

 forms which the care of parents for offspring may take. 

 But it is our purpose to make clear that this kind of care 

 after reproduction makes it possible to diminish the 

 original cost to the parent in substance. When bacteria 

 divide into two half-sized individuals, the daughter cells 

 have as much substance of the parent as is possible, but 

 there is no parent left to give them any care. This is 

 successful. No group is more successful on its plane of 

 living than the bacteria. At the other extreme we have 

 man, in whom the embryo has very little endowment in 

 the egg itself, but has the maximum of parental care, in 

 that it is carried in the body, is supplied with food, and 

 receives definite protection and education for a long period 

 after birth. Men can keep the species up, that is, each 

 fr.mily can bring two to maturity on the average, with a 

 birth rate of three or four during the generation. 



6. Effects of Parental Care in Higher Forms. There 

 are several things, especially important in human life, 

 that grow out of this increasing care of parents for the 

 young after hatching or birth. These things have great 

 influence on the species and on the relations of individuals. 



In the first place, the period of infancy and helplessness 

 grows longer and longer as we ascend the scale of life. 

 The higher the parent physically and mentally, the more 

 difference there is between the offspring and the mature 

 parent; the further the offspring have to go in their 

 development. Thus there is the more need for parental 



