THE TIME OF ORGANIZED BEINGS I49 



the square roots of the figures in the first column. The third, 

 the reciprocal value of the figures of the second. The fourth, 

 the values of the index of cicatrization corresponding to each 

 dimension of a wound for the age of twenty. And finally the 

 fifth, the quotient of the figures of the fourth column (index /) 

 by the corresponding figures of the third or, what amounts 

 exactly to the same thing, the values of the product of / by the 

 figures of the second column (square roots). 



Why these figures? For the following reasons: As the area 

 decreases the index of cicatrization increases. But the area 

 decreases more rapidly than the index increases. This is 

 obvious: we see in the table that when the area diminishes by 

 one half, from 140 to 70 sq. cm. for instance, the index only 

 increases from 0-210 to 0-0325. When the wound is reduced 

 to one third of its size (from 150 sq. cm. to 50 sq. cm.) the 

 index has only just doubled (from 0-020 to 0-040). It is pre- 

 cisely this absence of proportionality which makes it necessary 

 to take the area into account. But when a quantity decreases, 

 its reciprocal increases. Consequently, when one considers 

 the reciprocal of the area, it varies in the same direction as the 

 index but always with greater rapidity. The aim being to 

 obtain a constant, for then the area could be eliminated, it 

 behoved us to try to see if a quantity did not exist which 

 would be a simple function of the area, and the variations of 

 which would follow as closely as possible the variations of the 

 reciprocal of the index. Now it may be remembered that in 

 estabHshing the formula, I took only the area into account, 

 except in the case of long, narrow wounds where the role of 

 the epithehal edge is preponderant. In this case, we have 

 seen that the experimental facts could be quantitatively ex- 

 pressed by introducing the square root of the area multiplied 

 by a certain coefficient. It is known that the square root of a 

 square area expresses quantitatively the length of one of the 

 sides. For a square, the product ^X-^/s is therefore equal 

 to the length of the sum of the four sides. If the figure is not 

 a square the coefficient 4 alone changes. If the figure con- 

 tracts, if its area decreases without the shape being altered, the 



