WHY WAS THIS THEORY NOT STATED BEFORE 261 



The mere recognition of the electron or of the discrete 

 nature of matter and electricity does not take one 

 far. The mere reduction of the units of physical chem- 

 istry — the atom and the ion — to the electron, does not 

 solve the problem of the organism. Plainly, it does not 

 advance our knowledge of the organism in any way 

 that would make possible a statement of the differ- 

 ence between life and non-life, the organism and 

 inorganic matter, in terms of atomic physics. In 

 fact, the mere reduction of the atom and the ion to 

 the electron does not shed even a ray of light on the 

 specific questions about the organism that physical 

 chemistry cannot answer. The bare idea that an 

 immensely large number of atoms, that themselves 

 are built up of a large number of elementary units, 

 constitute a cell or are contained even in chromo- 

 somes or chromatin, and therefore permit of the 

 forming of rich and varied "mosaics," is like the 

 idea that a very great number of cells that build up 

 an organism — one estimate has it twenty-six million 

 million cells in the human body — account for the 

 organism. Neither idea contains anything that in 

 the least would indicate the relationships among 

 these units that result in the larger living aggregate. 

 In connection with the fact (as I hold it to be) 

 that life, that is, the living organism, cannot be 

 interpreted comprehensively without taking account 



