Our profound interest in the problem of survival is natural and

practical and inevitable
Our profound interest in the problem of survival is natural and
practical and inevitable. But in spite of Darwin"s great
contribution toward a scientific analysis of the mechanism of
organic evolution, and in spite of the marvelous recent
progress of medicine along its many branches, the fact remains
that so far as this interest in the problem of survival is
dominant it must continue to hinder adequate analysis of the
problem of adaptation. Indeed, it is in large measure due to
such domination in the past that biology now lags so far behind
the less personal sciences of physics and chemistry. For
survival means the survival of an individual. And there is no
doubt that the individual organism is the most conspicuous
datum in the living world. The few who, neglectful of
individuals and survivals, find their chief interest in living
substance, its properties and processes, are promptly
challenged by the many to find living substance save in the
body of an organism. Thus, in a peculiarly significant sense,
organisms are vital units. And since the individual organism
shows a remarkable capacity to retain its identity under a wide
range of conditions, adaptability or adjustability comes to be
reckoned as the prime characteristic of life by all to whom the
integrity of the individual organism is the fact of chief
importance.


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