A LIMB FOR A LIFE 173 
to autophagy as the hermit-crab exhibits seem to 
us to corroborate our suggestion that we must not 
conclude from the simplicity of a present-day reflex 
that the process has evolved without any factor 
of awareness. 
What is the evolutionist’s finding—provisional, 
of course—in regard to the problem of autotomy ? 
Perhaps this: (1) that a capacity for breakage is 
very widespread among the less integrated lower 
animals; (2) that it may have to do with increase 
in size beyond the limits of nervous control, or 
with an inequality in the intensity of metabolic 
processes in different parts of the body; (3) that the 
giving off of parts may be useful as a mode of 
vegetative multiplication; as a means of getting rid 
of an aged, injured, or parasitized portion; and as a 
way of escaping from enemies; and (4) that it has 
come to be associated with a subsequent regenera- 
tion of what has been surrendered. Given these 
materials, so to speak, and plenty of time and sift- 
ing, the organism can perhaps work out structural 
elaborations as finished as those in the crab. But it 
is at least a tenable theory that the organism is a 
purposive individuality as well as a co-ordination 
of chemical reactions taking place in a colloid 
substratum, and that from time to time the factor 
of endeavor and the will to live has entered into 
the evolutionary process with varied degrees of 
self-awareness. It is conceivable also that what in 
some cases required to begin with—it may have been 
for a million years—genuine behavior, the con- 
