BEHAVIOE AND ASSIMILATION 



DR. HENRY D. HOOKER, JR. 

 rNU KKsiTv OK Missouri 



I 



Ix a discussion of Liebig's law of the minimum (Hooker, 

 '17), proof was given of the existence of an integrating 

 principle which, as Adams ('18, p. 481) points out, is 

 equivalent to Bancroft's law, so called because Bancroft 

 ( '11) was the first to indicate the application of Le Cha- 

 telier 's theorem to biology. In fact, if it be admitted that 

 organisms are systems in equilibrium, it follows that they 

 obey the theorem of Le Chatelier. Bancroft's formula- 

 tion of the law is "that a system tends to* change so as to 

 minimize an external disturbance." But this statement 

 is so broad that it fails to convey the full significance of 

 the theorem and apparently has led to some confusion. 

 It therefore seems advisable to give a detailed discussion 

 of the theorem of Le Chatelier in its application to biol- 

 ogy and more particularly to point out its relation to 

 other biological principles. 



''It will be perceived," says Troland ('17, p. 325), 

 "that the demand ... is not for new biological facts, 

 but for physico-chemical conceptions in terms of which a 

 chaos of biological facts, already at hand, can be ex- 

 ])lained or systematized." 



Findlay ('04, p. 56) defines the tlieorom of Le Cliatelier 

 follows: 



