224 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



morphogenetic course the production of the whole 

 individual. 



Further on we shall deal exclusively with this variety 

 of our systems, and in doing so we shall be brought back 

 to our problem of heredity. But it had its uses to place 

 our concept of the complex-equipotential system upon such 

 a broad basis : we at once gave a large range of validity to 

 all that is to follow which, indeed, does not apply to in- 

 heritance alone, though its significance in a theory of 

 heredity may be called its most important consequence. 



THE SECOND PEOOF OF LIFE-AUTONOMY. ENTELECHY AT 

 THE BOTTOM OF INHERITANCE 



After we had established the concept of the harmonious- 

 equipotential system in a former chapter, we went on 

 to study the phenomena of the differentiation of it, 

 and in particular the problem of the localisation of all 

 differentiations. Our new concept of the complex- 

 equipotential system is to lead us to an analysis of a 

 different kind : we shall pay special attention to the origin, 

 to the genesis of our complex systems that show equi- 

 potentiality. 



If we review the process of ontogenesis, we are able to 

 trace back every complex system to a very small group of 

 cells, and this small group of cells again to one single cell. 

 So in plants the cambium may be shown to have originated 

 in a sort of tissue-rudiment, established at a very early 

 period, and the ovary may be demonstrated to be the out- 

 come of a group of but a few cells, constituting the first 

 visible " Anlage " of the reproductive organs. At the end 



