258 WHAT IS LIFE 



continuity between the matter constituting the 

 living and non-living world the goal of biology 

 can be expressed in the same way."" 

 Wolfgang Ostwald declares: 



"Like the chemistry, so must the physics of 



organized substance be analyzed into unit 



processes and through gradual rebuilding from 



these be resurrected into a synthetic biology. "^^ 



Of the admitted legitimacy then of interpreting 



life in terms of atomic physics there can be no doubt. 



How far from the goal biology has been, appears 



from the fact that heredity is interpreted in terms 



of chromosomes. {See p. 230.) To be sure, especially 



when one reflects that the scientific conception of 



heredity only dates from Herbert Spencer, heredity 



in terms of chromosomes is seen as a marvelous 



advance over heredity in terms of ^'adaptation." 



As Bateson points out: "The absence of any definite 



progress in genetics in the last century was in great 



measure due to the exclusive prominence given to 



the problem of adaptation. Almost all debates on 



heredity centered in that part of the subject."^^ 



However, concerning the unsatisfactoriness of the 

 morphological interpretation of heredity, Ralph S. 

 Lillie, in a paper on The Place of Life in Nature (read 



" The Organism as a Whole, 1. 



'* Theoretical and Applied Colloid Chemistry, 170. 



" Problems of Genetics, 187. 



