No. 554] FITNESS OF ENVIRONMENT 



studied with patient care. Next, the properties of the 

 compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen must be con- 

 sidered, and some of the characteristics of the chemical 

 reactions into which they enter must be discussed. For 

 this examination the unparalleled development of the 

 science of organic chemistry provides ample material. 

 All of these things must be scrutinized quantitatively as 

 well as qualitatively, and again there is no lack of neces- 

 sary formation. 



Immediately one advantage of the method here pro- 

 posed becomes evident. We can deal with the familiar 

 abstractions of physical science — specific heat, coeffi- 

 cient of expansion, solubility, heat of reaction, etc.— and 

 thereby we shall gain all the advantages of the most exact 

 sciences. No qualifications, no doubtful or contentious 

 matter, no imperfect descriptions need enter. 



In this manner it will be easy to estimate the absolute 

 biological fitness in certain respects of water and carbonic 

 acid, and at once a host of automatic results of their 

 properties will become evident. Many of these results, 

 such as the nearly constant temperature of the ocean, the 

 ample rainfall, the freezing of water upon the surface, 

 the great variety of carbon compounds, are familiar sub- 

 jects of speculation, though since Darwin little interest 

 has been manifested in them; others, only recently 

 brought to light by the growth of physical science, are 

 nearly or quite unknown in this connection. All deserve 

 to receive more serious attention from biologists than is 

 at present vouchsafed them, for they constitute a part of 

 the very foundation of general biology, and they cause 

 many of the phenomena with which man is concerned in 

 his struggle for mastery of the environment. 



Yet the mere exposition of such facts and relationships 

 can not suffice in a discussion of the fitness of the environ- 

 ment. In the first place these are in the main familiar 

 ideas, and if they were altogether conclusive to prove the 

 existence of really significant fitness, if they could be 

 regarded as alone adequate to establish the necessity of 



