On Some Interactions of Organisms. 5 
lessen and remove these disorders, he may, by his own in- 
telligent interference, often avoid or greatly mitigate the 
evils of his situation, as well as hasten their remedy and 
removal. 
Some general notion of the original order of Nature, 
which obtains where civilization has not penetrated, will 
be needful for an understanding of the most important 
consequences of the modifications of that order which 
man brings to pass — for an understanding of the rela- 
tions of our own industrial operations and interests to 
the general laws and activities of the organic world 
under whose constant influence we must live and work. 
There is a general consent that primeval nature, as in 
the uninhabited forest or the untilled plain, presents a 
settled harmony of interaction among organic groups 
which is in strong contrast with the many serious malad- 
justments of plants and animals found in countries occu- 
pied by man. This is so familiar a fact that I need not 
dwell upon it, but will cite the reader to the generally ac- 
cessible “Introduction to Entomology, ’ ’ toy Kirby & 
Spence, for a sufficient statement of it. It will be more to 
my purpose to discuss the subject from a different stand- 
point. To determine the primitive order of Nature by in- 
duction alone requires such a vast number of observa- 
tions in all parts of the world, for so long a period of 
time, that more positive and satisfactory conclusions 
may perhaps be reached if we call in the aid of first prin- 
ciples, traveling to our end by the a priori road. 
For the purposes of this inquiry I shall assume as 
established laws of life, the reality of the struggle for ex- 
istence, the appearance of variations, and the frequent 
inheritance of such as conduce to the good of the indi- 
vidual and the species — in short, the evolution of species 
and higher groups under the influence of natural selec- 
tion. I shall also postulate, as an accepted law of Nature, 
the generalization that the species is maintained at the 
cost of the individual — that, as a general rule, the rate of 
reproduction is in inverse ratio to the grade of individual 
development and activity; or, as Spencer tersely states 
this law, that “Individuation and Genesis are antagonis- 
