16 
ORGANIC DEPENDENCE AND DISEASE 
mers for a while ; tlieir ontogeny or individual history here, 
as often, reflecting the successive phases of development 
through which their entire race has come. 
This ontogenetic fact referred to is so generally repeated 
in other groups of the lesser animals that it may safely be 
said of all which live their mature life encased in shells or 
moored to other objects, that it is in their infancy alone 
their normal life is expressed, and we know as well that the 
pervasion which has set in to change a life of freedom and 
independence has likewise set up changes of anatomy and 
physiology which make the mature creature only the more 
dependent by adjustment to his abnormal life. The de- 
velopment history of the individual is an important record 
for interpreting the status of that individual, whatever kind 
of creature he may he. The boy is father to the man in a 
very true sense when we apply it to ourselves or to any ani- 
mal that keeps its independence throughout life. But the 
boy, the young, the infant stage, is the only faithful reflec- 
tion of the dignified past in the case of such creatures as 
have lost their grip on normal living and have resorted to 
the sheltered life. 
With these statements of cause and effect it is easy and 
natural to ask and answer once more that venerable ques- 
tion whether the perfection of life lies in the perfection of 
adjustment. Independent living, freedom of locomotion 
and range expose the individual to ever new dangers. 
These the individual must quickly overcome or outwit; 
otherwise succumb. The choice is quick, imperious and fi- 
nal. To live is, for such independent creatures, an escape 
or a victory. To call it a ‘ ‘ struggle ’ ’ for existence is to 
designate it subjectively but very often it is exactly that, 
a quick reaction of refined innervation or “wits,” of the 
weak against the strong. But to the larger problem, that 
of those which have sought and found the easier way and 
which have snuggled into personal comfort, as contrasted 
with the struggles of the pathfinders of creation, there are 
