WHAT EVOLUTION IS 5 



tion may be called organic, as con- 

 trasted with what has just been 

 spoken of as cosmic. 



Organic evolution, dealing as it 

 does with living organisms, has a set 

 of problems quite its own. Although 

 the body of a plant or of an animal 

 contains no chemical element not 

 found in the earth, and the energy in 

 such living bodies is subject to the 

 same laws that govern the inorganic, 

 plants and animals have superim- 

 posed upon their fundamental cosmic 

 properties, other properties more or 

 less peculiar to themselves. Thus all 

 plants and animals, like other bodies 

 about us, are subject to the law of 

 gravitation and to other laws of a 

 purely physical and chemical nature; 

 yet these plants and animals grow, 

 reproduce, react, and respond in ways 

 which are not entirely consonant 

 with the chemistry and physics of the 



