97 



ganism for perceiving and then positively growing or nioxing 

 toward an en\ironnient that is the most satisfying for it." The 

 various tropisms, and the response of Mimosa leaves to shock are 

 acts of proenvironment. "In all moral acts, as in simpler and 

 more primitive actions and reactions amongst plants and ani- 

 mals, the fundamental outcome of moral resfDonse is a satis- 

 fied state" (p. 664). "Moral attitudes all represent proen- 

 vironal efforts by individuals" (p. 656). "Enterprise is varied 

 and vigorous proenvironal planning that is being put into prac- 

 tice" (p. 641). "Sex fusion is a proenvironal act" (p. 789). 

 "So the building of nests above ground, the excavation of nests 

 below the surface, or the hollowing of trees into nests by ants and 

 other insects ; the gradual elaboration of complex log houses and 

 dams by beavers; the planning and erection of a lake dwelling 

 by medieval man are all proenvironal acts," etc. (p. 790). "Man- 

 kind has proenvironed the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor 

 as thyself" (p. 791). The idea of proenvironment, or something 

 closely akin to it, was proposed by Cockayne and Foweraker in 

 their paper on "The principal plant associations in the immediate 

 vicinity of Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station" 

 (Trans. New Zealand Inst. 48: 166. 1916). The term there 

 proposed was Epharmonic variation, which was defined as "a 

 change in its form of physiological behavior beneficial to an 

 organism, evoked by the operation of some environmental 

 stimulus." For the intellectual realm the idea is also stated by 

 James in "The Will to Believe," where he says (p. 76): "... 

 of two conceptions equally fit to satisfy the logical demand, that 

 one which awakens the active impulses, or satisfies other aesthe- 

 tic demands better than the other, will be accounted the more 

 rational conception, and will deservedly prevail." The con- 

 ception, however, appears to have been nowhere so thoroughly 

 elaborated as by the author under review. 



In Chapter VIII the author postulates the law of "Pen- 

 tamorphogeny," that is, that there are five factors or cooperative 

 agents in organic evolution, namely, heredity, environment, 

 proenvironment, selection, and .reproduction (p. 204). This is 

 somewhat in contrast to Osborn's law of "Tetraplasy," the 



