THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 251 



pounds of that homogeneous chemical material which is 

 supposed to represent the " being-a-lion." 



Of course nothing is said by our remarks against the 

 hypothesis that there may exist real chemical compounds, 

 which are characteristic of organic specificity in the sense 

 of being necessary means of morphogenesis, and which perhaps 

 play their role in the process of inheritance as far as its 

 material side is concerned. In fact, the new discoveries in 

 hybridisation, as we know, seem to advocate such a view 

 to a certain extent. These substances, however, are by no 

 means identical with entelechy but are used by entelechy. 



There is still another very grave objection against the 

 material character of entelechy : if it were material it would 

 be subject to energetical changes, for it would be energetical 

 itself; but that we have seen is an impossibility. And, 

 moreover, to assume that the disintegration of a certain amount 

 of chemical material, homogeneous in itself, could explain 

 real differentiation during ontogeny, would clearly contradict 

 the principle of univocal determination. 1 



No Constellation of Chemical Substances Possible as the 



Basis of Entelechy 



But now you might reply to our discussion : " Good, a 

 specific chemical compound cannot be the basis of entelechy 

 in the sense that entelechy always appears whenever this 

 compound is formed, by the very fact of its formation. 

 But could not entelechy be a consequence of a specific 

 relative constellation of different chemical compounds of 

 specific states of aggregation ? Could there not appear a 



1 Comp. vol. i. p. 134 ff. 



