182 COMPENSATION AND ECONOMY OF GROWTH. 



Compensation and Economy of G-roioth. 



The elder Geoffrey and Goethe propounded, at about 

 the same time, their law of compensation or balancenient 

 of growth ; or, as Goethe expressed it, " in order to 

 spend on one side, nature is forced to economise on the 

 other side." I think this holds true to a certain extent 

 with our domestic productions : if nourishment flows to 

 one part or organ in excess, it rarely flows, at least in 

 excess, to another part ; thus it is difficult to get a cow 

 to give much milk and to fatten readily. The same 

 varieties of the cabbage do not yield abundant and 

 nutritious foliage and a copious supply of oil-bearing 

 seeds. When the seeds in our fruits become atrophied, 

 the fruit itself gains largely in size and quality. In 

 our poultry, a large tuft of feathers on the head is 

 generally accompanied by a diminished comb, and a 

 large beard by diminished wattles. With species in a 

 state of nature it can hardly be maintained that the law 

 is of universal application ; but many good observers, 

 more especially botanists, believe in its truth. I will 

 not, however, here give any instances, for I see hardly 

 any way of distmguishing between the effects, on the 

 one hand, of a part being largely developed through 

 natural selection and another and adjoining part being 

 reduced by this same process or by disuse, and, on the 

 other hand, the actual withdrawal of nutriment from 

 one part owing to the excess of growth in another and 

 adjoining part. 



I suspect, also, that some of the cases of compensation 

 which have been advanced, and likewise some other 

 facts, may be merged under a more general principle, 

 namely, that natural selection is continually trying to 



