BIOLOGY AND HUMAN SOCIETY.
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or smoke to increase his pleasure or soothe his pain, only begin
when they have established symbiosis with him, and that this
symbiosis, unless Man be on his guard, may degenerate into his
enslavement by them.
But the faculty of initiating symbiosis with Man is not
confined exclusively to plants: it is shared by vertebrate creatures
like the mouse and the sparrow, and by invertebrates like the
cockroach and the housefly; all of these, notwithstanding Man's
endeavour to treat them as vermin, treat Man and his claim to
the Lordship of Creation with their respective gestures of
contempt, and by sheer force of numbers establish their claim
to de facto membership of organised Human Society. If animals
do not share the capacity of certain plants to enslave man, they
find compensation in their ability to exploit him. In addition
to open and Worthy foes, like beasts and birds of prey, Man
has to guard his property against meaner enemies like the jackal
and the fox, the kite and the crow, who gain their livelihood by
theft rather than by rapine. In the Old World the bat known
as the flying-fox sleeps by preference all day in Man's village
in order to ensure its own safety, and repays the debt it owes
by robbing Man's fruit-trees at night. In the New World the
bat known as the vampire enters Man's home and his premises
by night and gorges itself with blood sucked from the veins of
Man and his domestic animals. Nor are vertebrate animals the
only creatures whose existence may depend on the exploitation
of Man; their ravages are, in fact, trifling as compared with the
injury insects may do. The cockroach and the house-fly are
certainly unwelcome messmates; they are, however, after all,
only trivial members of that vast host of minor horrors that
corrupt Man's food, destroy Man's garments, endanger Man's
dwellings and disfigure Man's furniture; that live on Man's
person or his raiment or share his couch; that serve as vectors
of the organisms and viruses which bring blight to Man's
crops, bring murrain to his domestic animals and induce disease
in Man's own body.
It does not therefore surprise Biology to note that Human
Society, when in sober mood, should express doubt as to the
validity of Man's claim to be lord of Creation, and when
down-spirited should feel alarm regarding what is at times
termed the Insect Menace. Nor is Human Society cheered