Sketch of an Organismal Theory of Consciousness 343 



from the nomenclature of living beings. Later, with the per- 

 meation of all knowledge by the conception of the natural 

 or derivative origin of everything (a genuinely organic con- 

 ception, notice), has come even for elementary chemical sub- 

 stances, the induction into physics and chemistry of such 

 ideas as genetic relations, parenthood, and length of life. 

 So my suggestion that the air we breathe must be recognized 

 to possess latent attributes which by reacting w T ith the or- 

 ganism produce consciousness, falls into a genetic series in 

 the history of the interpretation of nature. 



The very important question, as already indicated, of ex- 

 actly how atmospheric or molecular oxygen operates in the 

 living being generally and the conscious being particularly, 

 is largely for the future to answ r er. One should never fail, 

 however, to couple this question with the same question as to 

 the behavior of oxygen, and for that matter of any other 

 chemical substance, in any reaction whatever. Exactly how, 

 for example, does oxygen operate with hydrogen to produce 

 the attribute of ref rangibility of water ; or with phosphorus 

 to produce the peculiar glow which that substance may ex- 

 hibit under some conditions? 



Concerning the positive knowledge and the views as to 

 details of the action of oxygen in connection with the or- 

 ganism, only a little can be said here though that little may 

 be very important. Looked at from the standpoint of the 

 old, the orthodoxly atomistic chemistry, probably the most 

 anomalous tiling about my hypothesis is that the organism 

 conceived as equivalent, chemically speaking, to an elemen- 

 tary substance, is the unquestioned fact that the organism is 

 not only composed of several chemical substances, but that 

 one of these is oxygen itself. Stated baldly, the anomaly is 

 that two chemical substances are supposed to react upon each 

 other, one of which (the organism) is known not only not 

 to be simple, but to contain the other substance. But even 

 the old chemistry with its "compound radicals," of which 



