130

APPENDIX.

Answers to questions 135-149

CHAPTER I.

REPRODUCTION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF BIOLOGY.

REPRODUCTION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF BIOLOGY.

I. GENERAL ACTIVITIES OF LIVING ORGANISMS.

The casual observer, even if he watches thoughtfully the various
activities of plants and animals, would hardly believe these
activities capable of classification into two general classes. He
notes the germination of the plant seed and its early growth, step by
step approaching a stage of maturity; it blossoms, produces seed, and
if it is an annual plant, withers and dies. If it is a perennial plant
its leaves only, wither and die at the approach of winter, the plant
passing into a resting stage from which it awakes the following spring
to repeat again its annual cycle.

If he observes an animal he finds that it similarly develops to a
stage of maturity, reproduces its kind, withers and dies; but incident
to these general activities he notes numerous others that seem to have
no relation to the activity of the plant. He sees men tilling the
fields, felling the forests, building houses, factories and railroads;
he sees them build hospitals, colleges and churches. Is it possible to
group all of these activities of plants and animals into two general
groups? A more critical view of these activities makes it evident that
they are all directed either to the maintenance and protection of the
individual, or the maintenance and protection of the race. Those
directed towards the maintenance of self are called egoistic
activities, while those directed to the maintenance of the race are
called _phyletic activities_.

The Egoistic Activities.

The term egoistic implies that the effort is directed towards the ego
or self, and includes all of those activities directed to the support,
protection, defense and development of oneself. As illustrated in the
plant organism, the taking of nourishment from the air and soil, the
development of the stem, branches, roots and leaves, are egoistic
activities. In the animal--we may take, for example, man--the egoistic
activities begin with the drawing of nourishment from the mother's
breast and include all those activities of early childhood usually
called play, the real significance of which is to develop the
neuro-muscular system and the special senses, to that condition of
alertness and strength that will make the