PATTERN OF ORGANIC GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION 



teeth and bone are the subjects of a restless atomic tran- 

 substantiation. It is only the form of the body, the system of 

 preferred stations for the inward-bound replacements, that 

 achieves any kind of permanence at all. 



Superimposed on these exchanges are the processes which 

 make good the constant wastage of effete or expended cells. 



Fig. 6. Male beetles of the species Euchirus longimanus, 

 illustrating how the proportions of an organism may 

 change with its absolute size. The length of the fore-limbs 

 is grossly out of proportion to the length of the body. 



Pounds of dead cells in the form of scurf and its several 

 variants (hair, horn, nails, claws) are parted with in a lifetime. 

 The living outer layer of human skin renews itself completely 

 about once a month, or about 100 times in a proverbial seven 

 years. Red blood corpuscles live only about 120 days; at least 

 some lymphocytes appear to be excreted through the walls 

 of the intestine; a small proportion of the finest nerve fibres 

 and blood vessels is probably always in course of disintegration 

 and therefore always in course of being formed anewj Replace- 



109 



