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REVIEWS 



Relnheimer's Symbiosis* 



The author's thesjs with regard to evolution is that everything 

 normal and sound in organic evolution is due to biologically right- 

 eous (i.e., essentially cooperative) behavior, whilst everything ab- 

 normal and pathological is due to unrighteous (i.e., fundamentally 

 predatory) behavior. This is not the place to discuss the main 

 thesis of the book, which is not offered as a contribution to 

 botanical literature, but this is the place to note that the book 

 contains numerous statements about plants that are inaccurate or 

 incorrect, and sure to mislead readers not familiar with botany. 

 Thus on page 41 the author refers to a statement by W. C. 

 Worsdell that " the root of the vascular plant is less prone than 

 any other organ to deviate from the normal form," and then adds : 

 "When we bear in mind that . . . the premier industry of the 

 plant . . . consists in the conversion of inorganic into organic 

 material, it seems doubly remarkable that those parts which are 

 most busily engaged upon such industry, though ever so unob- 

 strusively and even shut away from sunlight, are the most robust 

 in health," etc. On page 57 the author says : " I have contended 

 these ten years that there 'is a biological causation of disease. . . ." 

 The italics are the reviewer's. No biologist needs to be reminded 

 that a biological causation of disease was experimentally demon- 

 strated by Pasteur some forty-odd years ago. On the same page 

 we read : " Few would have imagined that the case of hay fever 

 provides an illustration of the biological causation of disease." 

 The very name " hay " fever indicates that such a relationship has 

 been commonly recognized for years. 



On page 58 the action of pollen in causing pollinosis is ex- 

 plained on the ground that its " protoplasm is so poor in food 

 values," though it is now common knowledge that so-called " hay 

 fever " may be caused by a great variety of proteins, such as 

 beans, beef, cheese, fowl, fish, whole wheat and others, standing 

 at the top of the list in food value. On the same page pollen 



* Reinheimer, H. Symbiosis : A socio-physiological study of Evolution. 

 Pp. xii + 295. Headley Brothers, London, 1920. 



