CHAPTER III. 



OBVERSE A PRIORI PRINCIPLE. 



§ 324. When dealing with, its phenomena inductively, we 

 saw that however it may be carried on, Genesis " is a process 

 of negative or positive disintegration ; and is thus essentially 

 opposed to that process of integration, which is one element 

 of individual evolution." (§ 76.) Each new individual, whe- 

 ther separated as a germ or in some more-developed form, is a 

 deduction from the mass of a pre-existing individual or of two 

 pre-existing individuals. Whatever nutritive matter is stored 

 up along with the germ, if it be deposited in the shape of an 

 egg, is so much nutritive matter lost to the parent. No 

 drop of blood can be absorbed by the foetus, and no draught 

 of milk sucked bv the voung when born, without taking 

 from the mother tissue-forming and force- evolving materials 

 to an equivalent amount. And all subsequent supplies given 

 to progeny, if they are nurtured, involve, to a parent or 

 parents, so much waste in exertion that does not bring its 

 return in assimilated food. 



Conversely, the continued aggregation of materials into one 

 organism, renders impossible the formation of other organ- 

 isms out of those materials. As much assimilated food as is 

 united into a single whole, is so much assimilated food with- 

 held from a plurality of wholes that might else have been 

 produced. Given the absorbed nutriment as a constant 

 quantity, and the longer the building of it up into a con- 



