Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-10

plant life the less it seems like a
chaos of incessant conflict and car
mage and the more it seems like a univer-
sal scheme Of unconscious cooperation. The
struggle for existence is real, war to the
death, to the strongest belong the spoils
everyone for himself, the weak to the wall
and all that But also we find on closer in
spection than we thought of mutual
aid, not only between individuals of the
same family or pack species, but be-
tween species Of the most widely different
sorts, and sometimes it turns out that what
seems to be inveterate enemies are actually
involuntary allies.
Many animal owes his success in life
to the unrecognized cooperation of the
humblest creatures. For instance it is
great advantage for fishes and other ma
rine forms to have lighting system for use
at night and in the depths of the sea-
Some have glands that secrete- the two
kinds of chemicals that produce light when
mixed. But many others depend upon
luminous bacteria, of which some thirty
species are known. These live in certain
glands or stream through tubes which serve
as lamps to the lost. The cuttle-fish has
gone so far as to fix up a reflector behind
and a lens in front of it's light-giving colo
ny of bacteria. In the glow-worm the bac-
terra are also present in the beetles eggs,
which are likewise luminous.
Bacteria and other micro-organisms are
often found aiding digestion by attacking
substance that their hosts would find too
tough to tackle alone. Vegetable foods, for
instance, contain less cellulOse,
wood fiber, which is extremely indigestible
stuff, and even cattle could not get nutri-
ment out of it if it were not for process
Of internal fermentation. The so-called
white ants" termites, terror of the tropics,
get their living by eating the insdes out Of
furniture and books and yet they cannot di-
gest such celluIose, What they do is to
chew it up and turn it over to fungi, which
thrive on it and then the termites feed
the fungi
Flies lay their eggs in meat but the
larvae when they hatch out cannot digest
the meat without the help of the bacteria
in their intestines. Peas, beans and alfalfa
owe their power of utilizing the nitrogen
of the air to the bacteria that coonize on
their roots in the form of nodules. Most
plants can not free nitrogen but have
to have it served up to them in the form
of salts such as nitrates. The root nodules
therefore might be called the Muscle Shoals
of the plant world but that would not be
fair name for them since they are work
ing.
The tubers of the potato are due to
parasitic fungus. Potato seeds planted in
sterilzed soil do not produce tubers but
when the fungus is allowed to invade the
soil tubers start to grow. If you should
ask young potato plant whether it wanted
to be infected by a fungus, and If the po-
tato were as intelligent-or rather as un-
intelligent men are-it doubtless would
reply that it's pristine purity must remain
unimpaired by any parasite. Yet that RE
fusal would deprive the plant of its chance
of perennial life and, what's worse. deprive
us of potatoes 1t has been found that
orchid seeds do not sprout unless a certain
fungus is present, and each species of orchid
has to have it's particular species of fungus.
The lichen on tree stone seems to us
a simple single growth but it really is
partnership of two very dissimilar forms
of vegetation, a plant and a parasite, az
alga and a fungus Which is to be regard
ed as the host and which the parasite,
which was originally the patient and which
was the disease, can hardly be determined
since the relation varies in different lichens,
and the two strange associates have been
living together so long that they play
into each others hands and could hardly
stand it to live alone.
SO it happens that a plan or animal gets
used to a chronic disease and finds it ad-
vantageous, and a parasite that came to
prey remains to serve. DR.. Nuttall of Cam
bridge, who, at the Liverpool meeting of
the British Association for the Advancement
Of Science, gave these and many other in
stances Of cooperation, or symbosis as
biologists call it, thinks that they all began
as cases of parasitium but that the conflict
between the associated organisms ended in
mutual adaptation. The two enemies be-
come allies and the parasite becomes a
partner.-Scence Service.