9 



52 Where did Life Begin \ 



the organism with restricted activity, limited 

 employments, and a narrower range of life, 

 recedes from the complex to the simpler in 

 form and function — and this is called degener- 

 ation. It is all the result of the chanmne re- 

 lations of demand to supply. And in the very 

 last analysis, in every case, I more than sus- 

 pect that all life which occurs within a certain 

 range of heat is the demand, and that all heat 

 which is suitable to such life-range is the 

 supply. 



These cases of degeneration in different or- 

 ders are more numerous than was formally 

 supposed. They have, in fact, been just as 

 frequent as the permanent success of a species 

 (by limiting their needs) in their struggle for 

 adaptation to an adverse environment, one 

 which continually diminished the variety and 

 quantity of supplies, and yet changed in its 

 unfavorable conditions so slowly as not to 

 exterminate the species. 



This fact offers us another suofo-estion in 

 this connection. If it is true that, in com- 

 mon with many existing plants and animals, 

 the ancestry of man — some animal with a 



