Chapter One 



The Organism 



A THEORY of life necessarily is a theory of 

 the living organism, since the research of 

 science into life is concerned exclusively with the 

 concrete. To inquire into life in the abstract is 

 worse than futile. 



The lowliest organisms are mere unnucleated specks 

 of protoplasm, living matter. The higher unicellular 

 organism consists of protoplasm and a nucleus. All 

 other organisms, from lowest to highest life-form, 

 vegetable and animal, including man, are multi- 

 cellular, each individual having originated in a single 

 cell. 



Thus the cell is the physiological unit of life. How- 

 ever, though among lowly life-forms like cells are 

 found closely bound together in colonies, one of the 

 higher organisms cannot be described as a colony of 

 like cells. The higher organism is built up of various 

 kinds of cells (tissue, gland, and yet other cells), 

 that moreover serve the organism as a whole. It 

 is well known that during the life of one of the higher 



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