6; 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cal act that the specific chemical rupture is effected, in consequence of 

 which the protoplasm reassumes its former contracted state in space. 



In physiology, the peculiar activity displayed by the protoplasm, and 

 induced by the dynamical influence of the medium, is called the func- 

 tion of the acting substance. The function is said to be stimulated by 

 the dynamical influence, and the material compounds which separate 

 from the living substance during this operation are distinguished as 

 products of functional disintegration. 



The special function of living contraction, which we have been en- 

 abled so plainly to follow up in our primitive organisms, is typical of 

 all motor and sensory functions whatever. Contractility is the funda- 

 mental expression of vital function. It is the first unmistakable, dis- 

 tinctly visible manifestation of living activity. 



All these functional performances, these visible and otherwise di- 

 rectly sensible parts of organic activity, compose the open spectacle of 

 life the ostensible conspicuous display of vitality. They correspond 

 to the manifest figurative exhibitions of an exquisitely-contrived clock, 

 all set in motion during its unwinding. But beyond this variegated 

 automatic show perceived on the outside, what depths of unsolved mys- 

 tery, molecular and other, remain behind in the impenetrable recesses 

 of organization, affording a boundless field for scientific exploration, as 

 well as teleological speculation. 



All those of the past and present who, in the stronghold of final 

 causes, have fortified their faith in a spirit of guiding forethought 

 Voltaire, the sprightly scoffer, with Paley, the sifting advocate, and so 

 many more who have sought to interpret the secret scheme of apparent 

 design traceable in the all-befitting coaptation of things to me it seems 

 they have but slightly and superficially used their strong means. 



The wonder lies essentially in the unification and integration of 

 manifold influences into the compass of one single individual entity, 

 not so essentially in the subsequent spontaneous correlation of that 

 individual to those manifold influences. The wonder lies chiefly in the 

 concentrated and unified organization of the relations, not so much in 

 their functional display afterward. The problem is the established 

 unity of the multifariously related individual, not the planning and 

 fitting of these multifarious relations themselves. The power of our 

 life is intrinsically wrought, not extrinsically derived. 



This most weighty truth the science of organization maintains not 

 on mere general grounds or formal conclusions drawn from assumed 

 premises, but it is ready to prove it step by step by actual verification. 

 The subsistence of the reverse supposition is altogether emotional and 

 metaphysical; it rests on fictitious ontology. From foreign spheres 

 an outside hand of power is made to reach forth, and to set going, by 

 dint of will or deed, the precious clock of life, with all its play of sen- 

 sation and motion, its revealing and its conquering beats. From out the 

 indefinite infinitudes an unlimited skill is evoked, and upon it are im- 



