THE ORGANISM 49 



phenomena characteristic of life, leaving matter in 

 the non-living state before us."^ For this reason 

 physiological chemistry (biochemistry) has the insup- 

 erable diflficulty to contend with that it is restricted 

 to the establishing of the relationship between 

 chemical constitution and reaction and biological 

 function. Nevertheless, Jacques Loeb said: "We 

 must realize that what we call life consists of a series 

 of chemical reactions, which are connected in a 

 catenary way."^ 



Certainly, a comprehensive theory of life must be a 

 definition of the organism that is absolutely funda- 

 mental. It must differentiate living matter from the 

 non-living world; it must be descriptive of all living 

 beings; and it must apply exclusively to living beings. 

 The fundamental definition of life must provide for 

 all the wide differences as well as for the likenesses 

 that are found from bottom to top in the scale of 

 organisms; it must provide also for the psychic 

 qualities exhibited by the higher organisms, and 

 especially by man; and, finally, it must supply the 

 key to the group of growths classed as neoplasms. 



The major peculiarities of the organism that dis- 

 tinguish it from the non-living are: 



1. Growth. (Synthesizing its own specific mate- 

 rial.) 



* The Evolution of the Earth and its Inhabitants, 83. 



* The Mechanistic Conception of Life, 212. 



