252 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



new and elemental factor owing to the constellation of some 

 other factors already known ? Do we not see such an 

 event happen whenever electricity is generated by rubbing 

 a glass rod ? ' 



Let us try to answer this objection at first in a narrower 

 sense. If the typical constellation of the inorganic agents 

 A, B, C, and D is to originate a new sort of activity, which 

 does not come to them from without, but is regarded as 

 their true and real consequence, how would it be conceiv- 

 able at all unless you imagine that one of the four 

 constituents, A, B, C, and D, possessed the new agent in 

 question already in a state of potentiality, comparable to 

 the state of a so-called zymogen in fermentation, which is 

 waiting to be transformed into a ferment ? But, if it gives 

 this turn to the problem, the constellation-theory represents 

 no great advance on the purely chemical theory of entelechy 

 already refuted. One of the four elements of the hypo- 

 thetic constellation creating entelechy would have to per- 

 form almost the same role that is performed by the specific 

 compound of the chemical doctrine. 



But to pass to more general considerations : is it 

 at all possible that new elemental kinds of natural changes 

 can be created by the mere constellation of agents already 

 known ? Can such a constellation possibly be followed by 

 more than a mere resultant action of the sum of the 

 elemental actions of its constituents ? 



It has been said occasionally by modern writers that a 

 system, by the mere increase of its amount of material, may 

 begin to exhibit marked differences in its behaviour. Take 

 for instance a homogeneous sphere in rotation. It will 

 simply be flattened at its poles, if it is small, but a large 



