ADAPTATION 363 



It is instructive to compare Halclane's statements with 

 those of Carrell (1931) in his exposition of the principles of 

 1 the New Cytology.' He says (p. 303) : ' The success of the 

 new method (tissue culture) in bringing about the discovery of 

 so many phenomena must be attributed to its power, which 

 histology, physics and chemistry lack, to apprehend the com- 

 plex system formed by the tissues and their environment. 

 The concepts and methods of physics and chemistry are 

 adapted to the atomic and molecular levels of the organisation 

 of matter. When applied to the cellular and supracellular 

 levels they detect only phenomena of the atomic and mole- 

 cular orders. On the other hand, cytology and histology are 

 concerned exclusively with the form of cellular and supra- 

 cellular organisms. Therefore none of these sciences alone is 

 capable of dealing with physiological phenomena, such as 

 organisation and adaptation, which belong to the supra- 

 cellular order and are the expression of sociological laws. The 

 specific laws of physiology, said Claude Bernard, are the laws 

 of organisation. Such are precisely the phenomena and the 

 laws that the new cytology endeavours to discover by co- 

 ordinating, through its own techniques, the data supplied about 

 cells, tissues and organic fluids by physics, physical chemistry, 

 chemistry and classical cytology and histology. Studied in 

 this manner, cells and tissues appear as being endowed with 

 properties which make them not only the building stones but 

 also the builders of an organism capable of developing, 

 maturing, growing old, repairing wounds and resisting or 

 succumbing to diseases. It is with such an aspect of the 

 tissues that embryology and pathology, as well as cytology, 

 should be concerned.' 



Thus the intricate adaptations within the organism are in 

 the nature of compensatory processes which allow the charac- 

 teristic form to be maintained in spite of pressure from one 

 part of the organism or from the environment. In this sense 

 adaptation is synonymous with organisation, the fundamental 

 property of all living matter. This point of view has recently 

 been expressed by Berg (1926, p. 7) in rather different words. 

 He says : ' Purposive adaptation is one of the fundamental 

 properties of the living being (not liable to further resolution 

 into elements), such as irritability, contractility, capacity for 

 nourishment, assimilation, reproduction. It is neither more, 



