THE ERA OF HELPLESSNESS 49 



thinkable in such animals that the organs through 

 which nutriment is ordinarily taken could be trans- 

 formed at other times to serve for respiration, or 

 that what ordinarily are respiratory organs could 

 be used for locomotion, or vice versa. 



If there are degrees in inconceivability, then it is 

 still more inconceivable that the digestive organs 

 could be changed so as to serve for reproduction, or 

 vice versa. And yet, as above stated, similar ex- 

 changes are reported to take place freely among 

 lowly organized forms of animal and vegetable life. 

 In some of the latter, when the respective positions 

 of roots below ground and branches and leaves above 

 have been reversed, roots have been reported to have 

 changed into branches and leaves, and vice versa. 

 Tissues ordinarily devoted to nutrition are stated 

 sometimes to take up reproductive functions, and 

 vice versa. Considerable portions of a plant can be 

 morbid and others absolutely dead, while other parts 

 of the same plant continue to live and reproduce 

 normally. Changes come easy in the latter cases 

 and extremely hard in the former, owing to a wide 

 difference in specialization reached in these two 

 different realms of nature, and this emphasizes, 

 firstly, the small amount of interdependence existing 

 between various parts of organisms of a low type; 

 and secondly, the absolute dependence of the 

 welfare and life of every part in highly specialized 

 organisms, on nearly exact normality in the per- 

 formances and conditions of all other parts. 



