THE ORGANIC AND THE INORGANIC 333 



That is to say, it is a constellation which reproduces 

 itself in all its specificity. Growth consists in the 

 separation from the organism of a part, or reproductive 

 cell, which divides (or dissociates) repeatedly, each 

 dissociated part growing again in mass by the addition 

 of substances similar to its own, but which are taken 

 from a medium dissimilar in composition to itself. 

 The aggregate of parts so formed then differentiates 

 so that the constellation is reproduced in all its 

 specificity. There is nothing precisely similar to 

 this in inorganic happening. The growth of a crystal 

 consists simply of the accretion of elements similar in 

 nature to those of the growing body, and there is no 

 differentiation. 



The organism exhibits autonomy. 



It is a constellation which persists in the midst of 

 an ever-changing environment, and the typical organic 

 form remains the same, although the material of which 

 it is composed undergoes continual change. There are 

 inorganic entities which resemble the organism in this 

 respect : the form of a cyclone or atmospheric dis- 

 turbance, for instance, remains the same even though 

 the air of which it is composed is continually changed. 

 But the form of the organism does not vary strictly 

 with the changes in the environment in which it is 

 placed, for it may respond to an environmental change 

 by a regulation, or compensatory change in form or 

 functioning, the effect of which is to maintain the con- 

 stellation in all its specificity. The regulation is not 

 a complete or perfect one, for environmental changes 

 do, to some extent, produce changes in the organic 

 constellation, but there is no functionality between the 

 environmental change and the organic response. In 

 inorganic happening a change in one part of a trans- 

 forming system necessarily determines the nature and 



