Significance of the Internal Secretory System 151 



hundred and eighteen, science, at least so much of it as 

 speaks through this volume, though understanding fully 

 what this dualist theory is, rejects it. It denies that things 

 take place in the soul as though there were no body ; and 

 that things take place in the body as though there were no 

 soul. On the contrary it affirms that what in rather un- 

 critical language we call "the body" and "the soul" are in 

 the most intimate and indissoluble connection with and de- 

 pendence upon each other, and together constitute "the 

 Organism." 



The Form of Metaphysical Absolutism Involved 



A full, systematic justification of this position is beyond 

 the province of this volume ; and in this chapter we are con- 

 cerned solely with the "body," the strictly morphological 

 and physiological aspect of the subject. Nevertheless, this 

 much of contact with the "soul" aspect was unavoidable for 

 the reason that Bernard and also Loeb have run into it in 

 such fashion as to color deeply their discussions and out- 

 look. This coloring is the more unfortunate and the more 

 insistent in requiring attention from the fact that the au- 

 thors, especially Loeb, are apparently unaware of such 

 coloring. For example, Loeb writes on the first page of his 

 book, after saying that the atomistic theory of matter and 

 electricity are now in all probability on a "permanent 

 basis" : "This permits us to state as an ultimate aim of the 

 physical sciences the visualization of all phenomena in terms 

 of groupings and displacements of ultimate particles, and 

 since there is no discontinuity between the matter consti- 

 tuting the living and non-living world the goal of biology 

 can be expressed in the same way." 



Statements like this, many of w^hich can easily be quoted 

 from Loeb's writings, leave no question about his meta- 

 physical affinities. The conception of "ultimate particles" 



