COLLATERAL READINGS SUGGESTED.

Darwin's Origin of Species, and Descent of Man; Wallace's Darwinism; Joly's Man before Metals; Lyell's The Antiquity of Man; Lubbock's Prehistoric Man; Tylor's Primitive Culture, and Anthropology; Spencer's "Sources of Architectural Types,” in Illustrations of Universal Progress; Le Duc's Story of a House; Eassie's Healthy Homes; Lubke's History of Art; Articles "Anthropology" and "Architecture" in Encyclopædia Britannica; Gerhard's Architecture and Sanitation.

SHELTER, AS RELATED TO THE EVOLU

TION OF LIFE.

BY Z. SIDNEY SAMPSON.

In what relation does Shelter stand to the development of life, and how may it further or hinder survival?

In the discussion of this topic it is of the first importance that we have a satisfactory definition of life. Many have taken this in hand, with more or less success, but we shall not err if we accept Mr. Spencer's conclusions as being at the same time more comprehensive and scientifically exact than any of those yet presented. Mr. Spencer, in his Biology, after testing various preliminary definitions of life reaches the following as being inclusive of all its processes, viz., "the adjustment of internal relations to external relations." Internal relations are the total of all relations between and among the several organs, which, in their manifold mutual interactions, constitute what we term the vital organism. External relations are the sum of all influences external to the organism, which, in their manifold variations and combinations, impress upon the vital organism changes either simultaneous or successive. These external influences are, themselves, either simultaneous or successive in their occurrence, and in their effects upon the body. Influences like gravitation. and atmospheric pressure upon the same level, are instances of simultaneous and permanent influences. Meteorological changes are examples of influences which are successive, while they are also simultaneous with the former. And further, the changes and alterations induced by these external factors produce within the organism affected, alterations and changes which are heterogeneous in their character, and essentially diverse, from the fact that they act upon localized and specialized organs and functions, each of which has its individual and peculiar service in the vital economy

—and herein differing from the effects upon inorganic nature, upon which they are substantially uniform, so far as they extend.

The total of these ever acting and ever varying incident external forces we call the environment-a word which has passed into such common and extensive use, that the greater number, by far, of those who use it, do so without any sufficient knowledge of the complex ideas which, to the mind of the scientist, are involved in it, from the point of view of Scientific Evolution.

Now, life is the adjustment of the vital organism to the environment-the constant endeavor upon its part to secure and maintain, as nearly as possible, equilibrium with these exterior and antagonistic forces. Wherever what has been appropriately termed a moving equilibrium is obtained and held, life exists. It exists wherever and whenever the organism can hold its own with the surrounding cosmic energies-for the entire universe here comes into play. Under the doctrine of ever widening correspondences, first of the lowest forms of life with its immediate surroundings, through all gradations of the evolution of sentient beings, establishing, in time, infinite correspondences in time and space, through touch, sight, hearing, speech and concomitant intellectual, moral and religious development, to its highest consummation, man's spirit, there is no atom of cosmic dust, or vibrations of the ethereal medium, now traveling towards us from worlds yet invisible, which does not, in and through the grand sweep of infinite energy, record its influence upon all that lives and moves and has its being thereby; so true is it, not alone in the moral and intellectual life, but in the merely physical as well, that the sentiment of the poet has full meaning, that each is bound to each in natural sympathy. "Hitch your wagon to a star," says Emerson -but in truth and scientific fact all our wagon's are hitched to all stars, whether we will or no, and we are one with all the constellations.

But this equilibrium of the organism with the environment is at no time perfect. We are always more or less out of joint with it; and this holds true throughout the entire range of plant and animal life, as well as in man. Yet it is in and through this very fact

that advance becomes possible, and that slow but certain improvement is ultimately assured. For observe, that it is only through the constant strife of organism with environment, and this constant and persistent endeavor to attain adaptation to it, that has been in23 duced, and is now continued, that ceaseless struggle for existence whereby arise, in the organism, variations Entinnt which are favorable, in the successful contestants, to survival. Were it not for this endless search and contest for adaptation to surrounding conditions, there would, in due time, eventuate that complete equilibrium which would be paralysis and death. This is the famous. principle so revolutionary for both science and theology which is forever associated with the name of Darwin -the doctrine of Natural Selection-to which Mr. Spencer subsequently applied the phrase, “survival of the fittest." In this strife peace is secured only through It is not only organism against environment, but organism against organism; though the latter phrase is included in the former, since, to each individual organism, all other organisms are part and parcel of its environment. The weakest go to the wall. Disaster takes the hindmost,—not alone man, but all lowest creatures "rise on stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things." Favorable variations are further strengthened and made permanent in species by use, and valuable qualities of survival, both for offense and defense, are transmitted by Heredity. New species. originate thousands disappear. The Geological and Palæontological records are Bibles of Science, wherein we may read both warnings and prophecies.

war.

In this preliminary survey we have not lost sight of our topic, but have been moving directly towards it. For observe that, in a state of nature, favorable variations cannot possibly arise except through this warfare of species and varieties. Those which are hindered from entering and taking part in this contest, or are protected unduly from it, lose their ground of advantage. In order to secure that adaptation which means progress, they must be placed directly in touch with all those external relations, which, though they may destroy, yet will alone develop in the organism a higher life.

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Shelter, therefore, is a positive disadvantage to the lowest forms of life, except in those rare instances where the shelter is so complete as to give opportunity for the development of other favorable variations; and by the lower I mean all organisms below man. The ways of nature are adapted to this circumstance. lowest organisms are the most completely exposed. The amoeba, the mere jelly-like substance which first exhibits a nucleus, is capable of subdivision by fissure, and, by repeatedly turning itself inside out, as may say, will expose every portion of its structure to its environment. As organisms develop we note the gradual appearance of correlated structure-the cartilaginous and bony skeleton and thicker outer covering, both of these being serviceable for protection. But still, exposure to the environment is imperative, in order that the increasingly complex nervous systems which are evolved may have unrestricted course for development by contact with adverse forces. Animals unduly weighted with defensive structures have succumbed to the more virile and active genera. They were burdened with shelter as to forbid their entering into successful competition with their smaller and more agile enemies. Says Mr. Kimball in his excellent lecture on "Arms and Armor" read before this association in our course upon "Sociology," and which I cordially recommend to the reading of students of this subject, "Nearly all the races and orders that were provided with massive external defenses have been overwhelmed, and those equipped with finer forms and textures have survived. Orthoceras and Dinicthys, Megalosaur and Megatherium, Ichthyosaur and Iguanodon, monsters armed with shell and scale, enormous and terrible, have all, without exception, gone down in the great life battle, while those whose weapons were the finer skeleton, the keener sense, the quicker nerve, the larger brain-are the races that have been victorious and have survived."

SO

And, in this connection, it is to be remarked in passing that even now the Lords of the British Admiralty are in serious consultation as to whether there should be any considerable further building of immense armorplated Megolosaurs and Dinosaurs for the navy. The