THE PROBLEM OF PATTERN 17 



or quantitative relation in a protoplasm, and it may 

 therefore be regarded as the most generalized or most 

 primitive organismic relation. This fact is, I believe, of 

 fundamental, though not generally recognized, signifi- 

 cance for physiology, and particularly in relation to the 

 problem of organismic pattern. 



This consideration of organismic pattern has estab- 

 lished certain points. First, organismic pattern is of a 

 higher order of magnitude than protoplasmic pattern 

 and involves the differential action, differentiation, and 

 relation of regions or masses of protoplasm or cells. 

 Second, although in every case a particular protoplasm 

 with its specific constitution and pattern constitutes the 

 substratum upon which organismic pattern arises and 

 develops, there is no evidence that the protoplasmic 

 mechanism is able autonomously, i.e., without the aid of 

 environmental factors, to give rise in the first instance 

 to organismic pattern. Third, organismic pattern, 

 whether mechanical, chemical and transportative, or 

 excitatory and transmissive, may arise, at least tempora- 

 rily, through the action of external factors upon a proto- 

 plasm. Fourth, the excitation-transmission relation 

 being essentially quantitative and nonspecific appears 

 to be the most generalized and most primitive factor 

 in organismic pattern. 



ORGANISMIC PATTERN AND THE CHROMOSOMES 



Apparently there is no escape from the conclusion 

 that organismic pattern is not inherent in protoplasm, 

 but arises in the final analysis from the relation of 

 protoplasm to external factors, and it seems also to be 

 true that the excitation-transmission relation is the 

 most generalized and most primitive component in 



