THE ERA OF HELPLESSNESS 51 



substance, be less than that of the composite material 

 from which it has been segregated, but the sum of 

 all the scopes of responsiveness of all the different 

 sub-substances segregated from a composite mate- 

 rial, such, for instance, as that of the body of an 

 amoeba, must at least be equal to the total scopes 

 of responsiveness of the original composite material 

 from which the sub-substances were derived. 



Since higher forms of life are derived from lower, 

 and these again at their lowest from an original 

 undifferentiated life material, viz., protoplasm, by 

 the progress of specialization above outlined, there- 

 fore it follows inevitably from the above line of 

 reasoning, that the undifferentiated organ of the 

 more primitive type must, in the scope of environ- 

 mental changes with which it can interact, surpass 

 any of the more highly evolved structures which 

 are found in higher types of life. See Appendix, 

 Note IV. 



In highly specialized forms, each one of the many 

 different organs, sub-organs, tissues, and substances 

 is exquisitely fitted for the efficient performance of 

 one special kind of functions or interactions with a 

 specific kind of environing material or conditions 

 only. If environing conditions vary from this, then 

 other specialized organs, tissues, or materials have 

 to do the interacting, or it is not done at all. 



For instance, lung-cells are adapted to hold at- 

 mospheric air of normal composition and pressure, 

 blood corpuscles to interact with the oxygen this 



