EVOLUTION AND THERMODYNAMICS 



an order might conceivably be regarded as the most primitive form 

 of organisation. But to the biologist there is a sharp contradiction 

 between this use of the term, and hence the view that the organisation 

 in the universe is perpetually decreasing; and his own use of it which 

 is associated with the evolutionary process. Here, in a part of the 

 universe, at any rate, organisation is always increasing. 



The matter is brought to a head when we find a physical chemist^ 

 describing the laws of probability and the second law of thermo- 

 dynamics as the "law of morpholysis." This is well calculated to 

 astonish the evolutionary morphologist, and makes imperative the 

 effort to clarify the terminological situation. 



The Meaning of the Law of Evolution, 



Modem biology is nothing if not evolutionary. There are now no 

 reasonable grounds for doubt that during successive ages after the 

 first appearance of life upon the earth it took up a succession of new 

 forms, each more highly organised than the last. This is not gainsaid 

 in any way by the existence of highly adaptive parasitism and retro- 

 gression in certain types of plants and animals, nor by the fact that a 

 hundred disadvantageous mutants may have to be produced for 

 every one which is of evolutionary value. It is surprising that the 

 theory of biological organisation is still in such a backward state. 

 Though there are few penetrating accounts of it in the literature, 

 every biologist has a rough working idea of what he means by it.^ 

 Here one may perhaps say that as we rise in the evolutionary scale 

 from the viruses and protozoa to the social primates, there is 



(i) a rise in the number of parts and envelopes^ of the organism 

 and the complexity of their morphological forms and geo- 

 metrical relations; 



(2) a rise in the effectiveness of the control of their functions by 

 the organism as a whole; 



(3) a rise in the degree of independence of the organism from its 

 environment, involving diversification and extension of range 

 of the organism's activities; 



^ R. E. D. Clark in Evangelical Quarterly, 1937, 9, 128, and in School Science 

 Review, 1939, 21, 831; 1940, 21, 11 17; see also his book The Universe and God 

 (London, 1939). 



^ Attention may be drawn to R. W. Gerard's thoughtful discussion "Organism, 

 Society and Science" in Sci. Monthly, 1940, 50, 340, 403 and 530; and to a paper of 

 A. H. Kamiat, Internat. Joum. Ethics, 1933,43, 395. 



^ See above, p. 184. 



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